Historic war crimes trial set to begin

A FORMER military officer, who is now restricted to life in a wheelchair, will this week become the first Rwandan to be put on trial in France over the 1994 genocide that left 800 000 dead.

The case is a historic one in a country which has been accused of failing to rein in the regime in power in Rwanda at the time of the slaughter.

France also allegedly dragged its feet over the repatriation or prosecution of individuals suspected of involvement in crimes against humanity.

The trial of former army captain Pascal Simbikangwa, 54, opens tomorrow in Paris and is expected to run for up to eight weeks. Exceptionally in France, the proceedings will be filmed.

Simbikangwa, who has been a paraplegic since a car accident in 1986, faces charges of complicity to commit genocide, based on incidents in Kigali and the north-western Gisenyi region.

He denies all the charges, including supplying arms, and instructing and encouraging Interahamwe Hutu militia to kill Tutsi men, women and children at a roadblock.

But he will not be tried for the April 1994 massacre in Kesho, north-western Rwanda, where he is remembered as a man who hated Tutsis.

Simbikangwa acknowledges being close to the regime of the Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination on April 6, 1994, unleashed the genocide. But he denies participating in or organising massacres.

His lawyers have attacked the prosecution case as being based on unchallenged witness accounts. They also say it is the result of political-diplomatic pressure on France by Rwanda.

Simbikangwa was initially charged with genocide and crimes against humanity but the charges against him were downgraded to complicity. –