30.09.09 - ICTR/NGIRABATWARE - ICTR INVESTIGATOR CONCLUDES HIS TESTIMONY AGAINST EX-RWANDAN MINISTER

Arusha, 30 September 2009 (FH) - An Investigator with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Andre Delvaux, Wednesday completed his six-day testimony before the UN court in the trial of the former  Rwandan Minister for Planning, Augustin Ngirabatware, who has been accused of having  spread ‘'Gospel of genocide'' during the bloody slaughter of 1994.

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The investigator, who was the first prosecution witness, mainly pointed to sketch plans of the accused in his involvement in alleged killings at road blocks and different massacre sites.

The investigator also demonstrated how the accused distributed weapons to kill the ethnic Tutsis and his involvement by inciting hate speeches. He also told how the former minister allegedly diverted development funds to purchase weapons for Interahamwe.

During the opening day on 23 September, lead attorney, Wallace Kapaya, affirmed that the former minister had held "several meetings" in his native region of Gisenyi, north-western Rwanda, in 1994 "to spread the Gospel of genocide".

The defendant was "an essential link of this joint criminal enterprise", underlined Kapaya before calling the first prosecution witness.

Second prosecution witness, dubbed ‘'ANAF'' to protect her identity, began her testimony Wednesday afternoon. The testimony continues Thursday   

Accused of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity, Ngirabatware, who is also the son-in-law of the businessman Felicien Kabuga, often presented as the financier of the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, has pleaded not guilty.

Arrested in Germany on 17 September 2007, the former minister has been in the custody of the ICTR since 8 October 2008.

Wealthy Kabuga, whose allegedly runs businesses in Kenya, is still at large.

A doctor of economic sciences from the University of Freiburg (Switzerland), Ngirabatware was, in his country, a professor at the National University of Rwanda (1986-1994), then minister of planning (1990-1994).

After his departure into exile in July 1994, he worked in various research institutes in Gabon and in France.

SC/GF

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