Arusha — Three former leaders of the former ruling party, the MRND, Monday again pleaded not guilty for their alleged roles in the genocide.

The former president of the party, Mathieu Ngirumpatse, his vice president Edouard Karemera; and Joseph Nzirorera, Secretary General, all pleaded not guilty to an amended indictment that cut down the number of charges from 11 to 7.

The prosecutor aims at highlighting the crime of conspiracy and the "joint criminal enterprise doctrine" within the ruling party.

A decision to amend the indictment, passed by the trial chamber February 14, 2005, says that the severance "would enable the Prosecution to restrict its case against the three other Accused to conspiracy and co-perpetration at the level of the MRND party, and their control of Interahamwe, rather than at the level of the government apparatus."

The Interahamwe militia, a youth wing of the MRND, played a pivotal role in the genocide.

The indictment also dropped former minister of education, Andre Rwamakuba as a co-defendant. Rwamakuba also appeared before the chamber separately to plead again not guilty, this time to only four counts. They include genocide, complicity in genocide and two counts of crimes against humanity (murder and extermination).

Unlike his three former co-indictees, the crime of rape was not included in Rwamakuba's charges.

The trial was interrupted in May last year when the presiding judge in the case, judge Andresia Vaz from Senegal, withdrew from the case after being accused of being close to a member of the prosecution, Dior Fall.

David Hooper of Britain, defence counsel for Rwamakuba, had claimed that Vaz and Fall had once shared the same accommodation, thereby raising the issue of impartiality.

The whole bench was told to step down and a new one reconstituted.

In came Judge Charles Dennis Byron from St. Kitts and Nevis, assisted by two ad litem (not permanent) judges; Judge Emile Francis Short of Ghana and Judge Gberdao Gustave Kam from Burkina Faso.

No date has yet been set for the opening of both trials.