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\nBrussels, April 27, 2007 (FH) \u2013 The trial of Bernard Ntuyahaga continued at the Court of Assises in Brussels after ten days. \u00a0The Rwanda officer is accused by Belgium in the assassination of ten Belgian Blue Helmets from the UNAMIR as well as of several other Rwanda figures during the 1994 genocide. \u00a0He has maintained his innocence.
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\nBernard Ntuyahaga\u2019s examination finishes Tuesday. \u00a0The major, in a jerky testimony during which he got sometimes carried away, denied any responsibility for the murder of the Belgian paras. \u00a0\u201cI was at the wrong place at the wrong time,\u201d he explained.
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\nAccording to him, he was the victim of a conspiracy: \u201cIn essence, the case is false and manipulated. \u00a0The other officers tried to protect themselves and everything has fallen again on me after 13 years. \u00a0I never received a mission, nor orders on this subject,\u201d he repeated.
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\nNumerous witnesses, including neighbors or colleagues, implicated Ntuyahaga in the assassinations committed in the Kyovu district, including among others Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. \u00a0These testimonies are \u201ccompletely false accounts\u201d on events \u201cof which he had no knowledge,\u201d the defendant assessed.
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\n\u201cYou were a soldier, but you saw nothing, you knew no one, not even your neighbors: you were a little like a ghost in 1994\u2026\u201d the president of the court Karine Gerard commented after 8 hours of examination.
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\nMajor Ntuyahaga\u2019s defense elicited questions. \u00a0\u201cThe general impression is that of a man thrust in a system of unsustainable defense,\u201d wrote La Libre Belgique. \u00a0\u201cTo be so blind and deaf in his environment defies imagination,\u201d the journalist said. \u00a0In an aside, lawyers judge it \u201ccatastrophic.\u201d
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\nThe families of the paras, who eagerly awaited Bernard Ntuyahaga\u2019s testimony, were left unsatisfied. \u00a0\u201cHe is not telling the truth and is putting his responsibility on others,\u201d Martine Debatty, sister of one of the killed Blue Helmets, declared.
\nNumerous incidents involving Mr. Luc de Temmerman, Bernard Ntuyahaga\u2019s lawyer, dominated the hearings. \u00a0In the presentation of his defense Monday, he accused the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of the Interior of having tried to obstruct the calling of an \u201cimportant witness\u201d living in the DRC. \u00a0He then addressed the civil parties who \u201casked\u2026to show dignity.\u201d
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\nThe investigating judge Damien Vandermeersch and Sylvania Verstreken appeared to explain the unwinding of their investigations \u2013 the long judicial process of Bernard Ntuyahaga which started after the issuing of an international arrest warrant against him by a Belgian judge.
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\nThen the Court started to hear background witnesses. \u00a0The human rights advocate Joseph Matata, the historian Antoine Nyetera, the writer-journalist Pierre Pean, the journalist Colette Braeckman, then Rene Degni Segui, United Nations reporter in Rwanda after the genocide, were heard. \u00a0After them around 150 witnesses, both background and fact, should appear in this trial which should last two months.
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\nThis trial is taking place in Belgium because of the law known as \u201cuniversal jurisdiction\u201d which permits, under certain conditions, Belgian courts to try foreign planners of crimes against humanity committed abroad.
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\nBF\/PB\/KD
\n\u00a0\u00a9 Hirondelle News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Brussels, April 27, 2007 (FH) \u2013 The trial of Bernard Ntuyahaga continued at the Court of Assises in Brussels after ten days. \u00a0The Rwanda officer is accused by Belgium in the assassination of ten Belgian Blue Helmets from the UNAMIR as well as of several other Rwanda figures during the 1994 genocide. \u00a0He has […]<\/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-18691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n