Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
30 July 2004
Arusha — The trial of a Rwandan Catholic priest who is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1994 Rwandan genocide will begin September 20, 2004 at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Father Athanase Seromba who hails from Rutsiro commune in Kibuye Prefecture (Western Rwanda) is charged with four counts including genocide, or in the alternative complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. At the time of the genocide where an estimated one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, the accused was the parish priest in charge of Nyange Parish in Kivumu commune also in Kibuye. The indictment states that many refugees fled to hide in churches and public buildings but the genocide suspect "refused to celebrate mass for those who had taken refuge in the church and stressed that he didn't want to do that for the inyenzi", a Kinyarwanda word for cockroaches which was used at the time to refer to Tutsis. This is the first time the tribunal will adjudicate the trial of a catholic priest accused of genocide.
The prosecutor alleges that the accused along with a recently arrested former businessman from Kibuye, Gaspard Kanyarukiga, was on April 14th, 1994, involved in the massacre of some 6,000 Tutsis who had taken refuge at Nyange Parish church. During this incident, the indictment states that, "Father Seromba ordered the interahamwe and the militia to launch attacks to kill the Tutsis, beginning with the intellectuals. Soon after, the interahamwe poured fuel through the roof of the church while gendarmes and communal police launched grenades and killed the refugees" Later he ordered the church to be destroyed by a bulldozer saying that "Hutu people were numerous and could build another one" More than 2000 Tutsis who were gathered inside were crushed to death, then "Father Seromba ordered the interahamwe to clean the "rubbish". The Catholic priest surrendered himself to the tribunal on the 6th of February, 2002 and has since been held at the United Nations Detention Facility also in Arusha.
According to the ICTR calendar, Father Seromba will be represented by defence counsel Alfred Pognon of Benin while the prosecution will be led by Sylvia Arbia. The trial will be heard in trial chamber I of the ICTR but the judges who will adjudicate Seromba's case are yet to be known.
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