14.04.10 - ICTR/KAREMERA - ‘INTERAHAMWE NEVER RECEIVED MILITARY TRAINING IN KIGALI'

Arusha, April 14, 2010 (FH) - Former Prefect of Kigali Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho Wednesday refuted claims that Interahamwe militia group received military training in the city.

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"This is pure fabrication. It is untrue and complete lie," Renzaho, also a genocide convict, serving life imprisonment sentence, told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

He was defending Joseph Nzirorera, also facing a genocide case before the ICTR Chamber presided over by Justice Dennis Byron, as his 33rd defence witness. Nzirorera was Secretary General of MRND in 1994, then ruling party in Rwanda.

Examined by Nzirorera's leading counsel Peter Robinson, Renzaho also refuted the evidence given by prosecution witnesses during the trial that he was personally involved in the training of the militia group.

In the trial, Nzirorera is charged jointly with the MRND former president Mathieu Ngirumpatse and his former vice president Edouard Karemera. The trio is charged with crimes committed by members of their party. The prosecution has indicted them for their superior responsibility as top officials of the party then in power.

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