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Nuns face Rwanda war crimes trial

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Four Rwandans -- including two Roman Catholic nuns -- are set to go on trial for allegedly participating in the country's 1994 genocide.

The landmark trial of two Benedictine nuns, a university professor and a presidential aide will focus on the killing of hundreds of Tutsis hiding at a Roman Catholic convent and health centre near the southern city of Butare.

The trial is due to begin on Tuesday in Belgium -- Rwanda's former colonial power -- under a 1993 Belgium law empowering Belgian criminal courts to hear cases of alleged human rights violations regardless of where the acts were committed.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in the 1994 killings by Hutu extremists. The three months of slaughter ended after Tutsi exiles invaded and took over the government.

Belgians jurors will be briefed on Rwanda's history from several witnesses, including journalists and human rights activists, before any evidence is heard.

Alison Des Forges, an adviser to Human Rights Watch, said it is the first time a jury of ordinary people has been asked to judge ordinary people of another country who have been accused of such crimes.

"The jurors will have to surmount the barrier of cultural differences to understand a context unlike any they have ever known.

"They will have to confront the horror and try to look into the hearts of people accused of behaviour that seems unimaginable," Forges said.

More than 170 witnesses are expected to be heard, including 50 from Rwanda who will be flown to Belgium to give evidence.

More than 100,000 genocide suspects are held in Rwandan jails, and courts there already have heard several hundred cases. Twenty-two people have been sentenced to death and executed for their role in planning and carrying out the massacres.

Sister Maria Kisito, 36, is charged with providing gasoline used to set fire to a building near her convent and health centre where 500 Tutsis were hiding.

Sister Gertrude, 42, faces charges of forcing hundreds of Tutsis hiding in her convent to leave, knowing they would be massacred. Some 600 were killed and on May 5, the prosecution alleges, Gertrude asked officials to remove the remaining 30 Tutsis, who were killed May 6.

Professor Vincent Ntezimana, 40, of the National University of Rwanda, is charged with the deaths of at least seven Tutsis, including a colleague and his wife, who were murdered by Hutu extremists.

Alphonse Higaniro, 52, owner of a match factory and an aide to former President Juvenal Habyarimana, is charged with inciting Hutus to murder and consorting with Hutu militiamen.

Habyarimanya was killed on April 6, 1994 as his plane either crashed or was shot down at Kigali airport, setting off the mass killings.



RELATED STORIES:
Rwanda pledge on genocide suspects
April 10, 2001
Warrant out for Rwandan ex-PM
April 11, 2001
Rwandan president sees hope for Congo peace
February 7, 2001

RELATED SITES:
UNDP
CIA - The World Factbook 2000 - Rwanda
U.N.

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