Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
30 September 2008
A former Rwandan Commander of Reconnaissance Battalion during the 1994 slaughter, Major Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, on trial alongside three other officers for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Monday will stand at the witness box to begin his own defence.
A total of 27 witnesses have so far testified in the defence of Major Nzuwonemeye. The case opened in September, 2004.
Others accused are Nzuwonemeye's deputy Commander, Captain Innocent Sagahutu whose defence will follow after that of his boss, and two former Chiefs of Staff of Army, General Augustin Bizimungu and that of the Gendarmerie National, Augustin Ndindiliyimana, both of whom have already defended themselves before the UN Tribunal.
The United Nations has estimated that about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the April-July 1994 spontaneous massacres.
According to Charles Taku ( Cameroon), lead counsel for defendant, more witnesses are likely to be called including two, already lined up for testimony code-named "FK" and "B2" ,to protect their identities.
Trial Chamber II on September 22, 2008, reprimanded the Prosecutor for failure to disclose to defence teams in the case, also known as Military II, some of written statements from the files of the former rebels, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), currently in power, and 16 other statements relevant specifically to the case.
However, Taku admitted the prosecutor has released some of the statements, especially three of them from the files of the RPF last Friday.
The trial is presided over by Judges Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka), Seon Ki Park (South Korea) and Taghreed Hikmet (Jordan).
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