Rwandan governor's genocide trial begins

January 09 2007 at 01:20AM

Nairobi - A former Kigali governor stood trial on Monday charged with being one of the main perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

The Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused Tharcisse Renzaho of genocide, complicity in genocide murder and rape in the massacres in which 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

Renzaho, 62, was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002. He is among nine high-profile suspects on whom the US government put a $5-million reward.

Six others are still at large.

"The accused assisted in the preparation of the genocide both as a public official and private individual," ICTR said in a statement.

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Prosecutors say Renzaho was left in charge of Kigali on April 12, 1994, and thereafter took part in arming participants of the genocide. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

"Evidence will be presented to prove his involvement at roadblocks throughout the city to which he supplied weapons and ammunition," the statement said.

As governor, he had control over mayors, communal police, militias and armed civilians and could order them to commit or refrain from unlawful acts, and to punish them.

He is also accused, along with others, of ordering the removal and killing of 60 Tutsi boys from a church-run pastoral centre. Prosecutors also say Renzaho, an army colonel, was near a Kigali hotel when an army tank shot at Tutsi houses, killing at least 40 people and he did not try to stop it.

The court has so far convicted 27 people and acquitted five suspects since its first trial in 1997. It has until the end of 2008 to complete its trials, and until 2010 to hear appeals