MILITARY TRIAL RESUMES WITH WITNESS TESTIFYING IN CLOSED SESSION

Arusha, February 12, 2004 (FH)- The trial of the former director of cabinet in the Rwandan Ministry of Defense, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora and three other senior military officials of the former Rwandan army (ex-FAR), resumed Thursday at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), with a prosecution witness testifying in closed session . Prosecuting counsel, Adeboyejo Adeshola (Nigeria) told the court that the witness, code-named ZA to protect her identity, had raised concerns about her security.

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"The witness has researched the situation in Rwanda whereby former perpetrators are living at liberty in Rwanda with the victims of the genocide. She has requested to have utmost anonymity. The only way we can do that is by going into closed session", explained the prosecution. The prosecutor added that the witness was worried that it would be revealed to the public what her occupation was in 1994 because whatever she had to say would not be said without her referring to her occupation. Prosecution witnesses EQ and VCH were expected to be the next to testify, they had earlier in the week fallen ill along with two judges. One of the judges who had been ill, Jai Ram Reddy from Fiji, was present in the Thursday session which enabled the trial to continue. Bagosora is co-accused in the so-called "Military I" trial with Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva who was in charge of the Gisenyi military area (westernRwanda), the former head of military operations of the army, General Gratien Kabiligi and Major Aloys Ntabakuze who was the commander of the Kanombe para-commando battalion based in Kigali. All have pleaded not guilty to genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial is in Trial Chamber One of the ICTR, presided over by Judge Erik Møse of Norway. He is assisted by Judge Serguei Aleckseievich Egorov of Russia as well as Judge Reddy. SV/KN/AT/FH (ML''0212e)