Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
11 July 2008
Arusha — The former rector of a Catholic college accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in 1994, Fr Hormisdas Nsengimana, started his own defence on Tuesday by telling the UN Court that he has never betrayed his priestly vows.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, reports Hirondelle Agency. "I believe that I have been faithful to my vows until now. I have a contract for life with the Diocese of Butare (southern Rwanda)," stated the Catholic Priest.
Nsengimana, a Hutu, said that he entered the priesthood to serve without any discrimination and with complete loyalty to everybody. He refuted prosecution allegations that ethnic Tutsis were not in his heart.
Before commenting on the charges brought against him, the clergyman narrated his path from his childhood in a Christian family until his ordination on 27 July, 1980. Three years later, he went to pursue in Rome classical and Christian studies until 1989.
On his return to his diocese, he was named rector of Christ the King College in Nyanza, a position which he still occupied during the genocide.
Fleeing the advancing rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), he initially took refuge in Cyangugu before passing on to the Democratic Republic of Congo and then to Cameroon. He was arrested in March 2002. Nsengimana has been on trial since June 2007.
He is accused not only of having incited the genocide in the region of Nyanza but also, personally, of having killed Tutsis in 1994 - charges that he has described as "odd and strange" by stressing that he maintained normal relations with Tutsis and that he had the confidence of his Tutsi Bishop, Jean-Baptiste Gahamanyi, who died in 1995.
The judges and the parties will go to Nyanza next week for a site visit of the location of the alleged acts.
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