Brussels,
BELGIUM
A
former senior Rwandan official went on trial in Belgium on Monday accused of
taking part in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in his country.
Friends and relatives of the
alleged victims of 71-year-old Fabien Neretse were present as he arrived at the
Brussels court, leaning on a crutch.
For the first time in a
Belgian case, Neretse is explicitly charged with "genocide" over 13
alleged murders between April and July 1994.
He was arrested in France in
2011, but was not in detention and presented himself at court. He denies all
charges.
"I'm innocent," he
declared to journalists outside the court.
Neretse did not immediately
appear in the dock, as Monday's hearing focused on jury selection. The first
full hearing is to take place on Thursday.
Neretse's lawyer, Jean-Pierre
Jacques, predicted that the prosecution would find it "very hard to
prove" his client had sought to target an entire ethnic group.
Under a 1993 law, Belgian
courts enjoy universal jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, war crimes and
crimes against humanity wherever they took place.
This is the fifth trial
regarding the genocide in Rwanda to have taken place in Belgium, the African
country's former colonial power.
Belgian citizen Claire Beckers
was a shopkeeper in the Rwandan capital, married to a man from the Tutsi ethnic
group, with whom she had an 18-year-old daughter.
All three were killed on April
9, 1994, three days after the assassination of president Juvenal Habyarimana
and the start of mass killings of Tutsi by Hutu extremists.
Beckers's Belgian sister
lodged a complaint, and Belgian prosecutors argue Neretse was a leader in her
area who sent armed men to prevent Tutsi escaping the death squads.
Neretse is also charged with
involvement in killings in the Gitaram and Ruhengeri districts, where the
agricultural engineer had founded a school.
Beckers's sister Martine
Beckers told reporters that the trial was the "end of a long battle", insisting
it is "important to honour the victims".
According to UN figures, the
Rwandan genocide cost the lives of 800,000 people, mainly from the Tutsi
minority but also moderate Hutus. - Africa
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