rwandan mayors go on trial in france
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Over 1994 genocide

Rwandan mayors go on trial in France

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Rwandan mayors go on trial in France

Skulls preserved at the Genocide memorial in Nyamata
Paris - Arab Today

Two former Rwandan mayors go on trial in France Tuesday facing charges of crimes against humanity and genocide over the 1994 massacres in the central African country.

As the second trial in Paris by a special court created to go after suspected Rwandan killers who fled to France, it is expected to lay bare the strained relations between the two countries.

Two decades on, Rwanda accuses France of complicity in the genocide -- in which at least 800,000 people died in an 100-day slaughter -- because of its unwavering support for the Hutu nationalist government at the time.

on the 20th anniversary of the mass killings two years ago, Rwanda's minority Tutsi president, Paul Kagame, openly accused French soldiers of not only complicity in the genocide but of actually taking part in it.
On Tuesday, Octavien Ngenzi, 58, and Tito Barahira, 64, go on trial for allegedly playing a direct role in the massacre of hundreds of Tutsi refugees in a church in the eastern town of Kabarondo on April 13, 1994.

The pair were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by Rwandan people's courts, known as gacaca, in 2009. 

They were both mayors of Kabarondo, Ngenzi having succeeded Barahira in 1986.

They deny accusations of carrying out "massive and systematic summary executions" and implementing a "concerted plan aimed at the annihilation" of the Tutsi minority.

The killings in Kabarondo, a town near the border with Tanzania, took place with great speed. 
The bloodshed was over by the end of April, when Tutsi rebels in the armed wing of what is now the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) took control of the area.

Elsewhere in the former Belgian colony, the slaughter would continue until the FPR fighters finally prevailed in July.

The mayors' trial, which is set to last eight weeks, comes two years after that of Pascal Simbikangwa, a former Rwandan army captain who was jailed for 25 years for his role in the genocide.

- Diplomatic freeze -
The defence has denounced that verdict as "political" and is appealing it.

Witnesses have said that on the morning of April 13, they saw Barahira, wielding a spear, at a rally at the football field where he called for "work" -- code for killing Tutsis.

Soon afterwards, hundreds of refugees who had arrived in recent days were hacked or beaten to death or blown up with hand grenades within the space of a few hours, according to survivors.

Kigali broke off ties with Paris in 2006 after a French judge issued arrest warrants against nine Rwandan officials over the assassination of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana.

The shooting down of the presidential plane on April 6, 1994, was blamed on the Tutsis and is considered to be the event that sparked the genocide.

The diplomatic freeze lasted for three years.

Last year, charges were thrown out against a priest, Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, the first Rwandan to be prosecuted in France in what had also been viewed by his defence as a politically motivated case.

Source: AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

rwandan mayors go on trial in france rwandan mayors go on trial in france

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

rwandan mayors go on trial in france rwandan mayors go on trial in france

 



GMT 04:22 2017 Tuesday ,26 December

Israel in touch with '10 countries' over embassy moves

GMT 19:43 2017 Friday ,06 October

Employee safety top priority at Khalifa Port

GMT 16:19 2017 Friday ,28 April

ISIS Suspect Arrested in Western Germany

GMT 12:57 2017 Monday ,11 December

50 Students Poisoned by Contaminated Well Water

GMT 16:31 2017 Thursday ,10 August

Palestinians will discuss decline of aids

GMT 21:15 2017 Saturday ,04 March

Obama never ordered surveillance on any US citizen

GMT 10:00 2017 Thursday ,09 March

Russia ‘can be good friends with GCC’

GMT 02:13 2017 Wednesday ,22 February

Russian helicopter crash kills 19 in Siberia

GMT 13:23 2017 Tuesday ,05 December

Lebanon PM Hariri rescinds resignation

GMT 00:39 2017 Tuesday ,05 December

Gunmen kill cleric in Aden, southern Yemen

GMT 11:43 2016 Thursday ,24 November

Will learn from Euro exit

GMT 06:56 2017 Tuesday ,17 October

US ‘not taking sides’ between Iraqi forces, Kurds

GMT 19:59 2017 Thursday ,16 February

Syrian opposition's chief negotiator arrives in Astana
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday