\nArusha, November 7th, 2000 (FH) - A witness on Tuesday accused formerjournalist and genocide suspect Hassan Ngeze of racism, in testimony beforethe International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). \"Yes, he was racist, because he devilized the Tutsis,\" said the secondprosecution witness, explaining that the evidence lay in what Ngeze wrote.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nHe was addressing the court during cross-questioning by Ngeze's Americanlawyer John Floyd. The witness, dubbed \"AHA\" to protect his identity, is a former journalistwith Ngeze's Kangura newspaper. He is currently in detention in Rwanda, buthas been transferred to the ICTR to give his testimony in the trial ofthree suspects linked to media that allegedly incited genocide in Rwanda in1994. Floyd sought to present Ngeze as an investigative journalist defendingpress freedom and the interests of the Republic [of Rwanda]. \"Yes, providedit was a Hutu Republic,\" the witness answered. AHA described Ngeze as ajournalist serving all Hutus worldwide. The witness said Ngeze added things that were \"dangerous\", that he wantedHutus to be superior to everyone and to realize that they were underthreat. AHA added that Radio T\u00e9l\u00e9vision des Mille Collines (RTLM) radiostation also campaigned for Hutus against the Tutsi rebellion. Ngeze is being tried jointly with former RTLM director Ferdinand Nahimanaand Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a former politician and RTLM founder. Barayagwiza has boycotted the trial since it started on October 23rd,claiming that the ICTR is manipulated by the current regime in Kigali. Witness AHA said Ngeze wanted to spread the message that the Tutsis' planhad been uncovered, but that he took this too far and wanted all Hutus tobe extremist. The witness said Kangura had published lists of \"accomplices\"of the Tutsi rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and that the lists werelater used to hunt down and kill people during the genocide. Asked about the so-called \"Hutu Ten Commandments\" published by Kangura, thewitness remarked that they were \"enough to start a civil war\". One of thesecommandments, according to the prosecution, warned Hutus against takingTutsi women as wives or partners. But AHA said Kangura's goal was not to see Tutsis wiped out for the sake ofit. He said the April 6th 1994 'plane attack that killed president Juv\u00e9nalHabyarimana and sparked the genocide was interpreted as \"the end of theHutus\". During cross-examination, the witness conceded that Ngeze had saved someTutsis during the genocide. \"Ngeze was a complex person,\" AHA told thecourt, adding that the person writing in the newspaper seemed differentfrom the individual. AT\/JC\/FH (ME%1107E )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, November 7th, 2000 (FH) - A witness on Tuesday accused formerjournalist and genocide suspect Hassan Ngeze of racism, in testimony beforethe International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). \"Yes, he was racist, because he devilized the Tutsis,\" said the secondprosecution witness, explaining that the evidence lay in what Ngeze wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-15929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n