The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Monday
opened its largest genocide trial of six suspects.
The trial, known as the Butare Case, was scheduled to begin last
Thursday but was adjourned due to lack of defense witnesses,
according to reports reaching here from the northern Tanzanian city
of Arusha.
The case was first heard on June 12, 2001, and involved a mother
and a son and four others jointly accused of taking part in
genocide in the Butare prefecture in southern Rwanda.
The mother, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, is the former Rwandan
minister for family and women affairs while the son, Arsene Shalom
Ntahobali, is a former militia leader.
The defense team has so far called 26 witnesses for the mother
and 13 witnesses for the son.
The United Nations court, based in Arusha, has been hearing cases
of a trial involving four former Rwandan military leaders.
The Butare trial, when fully underway, will be therefore the
largest single trial of Rwandan genocide suspects.
The ICTR was established in 1998 to deal with the trials of the
Rwandan genocide suspects and accused.
The Rwanda genocide in 1994 claimed 800,000 lives in a space of
100 days.
(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2006)
