Arusha, July 13th, 2004 (FH) – The "MILITARY I" trial involving four former military officials of the Rwandan army (Ex-FAR) taking place at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was on Tuesday adjourned to the 6th of September 2004. This session began on March 29th, 2004 and was marked by the appearance of twenty-seven prosecution witnesses.

  Two factual witnesses testified by video conference from The Hague and Brussels. In order to save court time during this session, some witnesses went directly into cross-examination after the prosecution presented the witnesses statements in place of their direct testimonies.  The prosecution also presented expert witnesses who specialized in hand writing analysis, and an expert on sexual violence against women in Rwanda during the genocide. The prosecution has now called 75 witnesses.

The defence is expected to begin its case in January 2005.  During this session, defence counsels on numerous occasions complained that prosecution witnesses presented “new evidence”, which they claim is prejudicial to the rights of the accused. They also complained many times about the prosecution providing information only a short time before the witness testifies instead of following Tribunal rules which state such information should be available to either party 21 days before the witness testifies.

Just before the adjournment the Chamber heard the testimony of the 75th prosecution witness, Professor Binaifer Nowrojee who said that, “rape was used as a weapon of the conflict in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide”.  The genocide claimed the lives of an estimated one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.  The witness explained at the beginning of her testimony that, “rapes were widespread, primarily on Tutsis women, although some Hutu women were also raped among the thousands of women who were raped through out Rwanda in 1994”. She stated that “today many women in Rwanda are dying in large numbers of HIV/AIDS as a result of rapes which occurred in 1994 making rape a very effective tool of conflict”. The trial involves the former director of cabinet in the Rwandan ministry of defence, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, the former chief of military operations in the former Rwandan army (ex-FAR), Brigadier General Gratien Kabiligi, the former military commander of Gisenyi region, Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, and Major Aloys Ntabakuze, former commander of the Kanombe Para-commando battalion based in Kigali.

The accused are mainly charged with Conspiracy to commit Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. All have pleaded not guilty. This so-called “Military I” started April 2, 2002 and it is considered as one of the most important ever brought before the ICTR.

The trial is before Trial Chamber One of the ICTR composed of Judge Erik Møse from Norway (presiding), Judge Jai Ram Reddy of Fiji, and Judge Serguei Aleckseievich Egorov from Russia.

SV/PB/JA/FH (ML1’0713e)