03.06.07 - RWANDA/GACACA - AN ACCUSED ATTACKED DURING A GACACA TRIAL

3 June 2007 By

Arusha, 3rd June 2007 (FH) - A man accused of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Gaetan de Banguwiha, was pelted with bricks, during his trial on Wednesday before a semi-popular court, in the south of Rwanda, charged with trying him, it was learned from local from an associate source on Friday.

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Banguwiha who is accused of murder and looting during the 1994 genocide appeared before the gacaca court of Gatobotobo, in the district of Huye.

"The meeting was disrupted by a bricks being thrown at the defendant", reported on Friday the League for Human Rights in the Great Lakes Region (LDGL). It indicated that the aggression originated with a woman that is a civil party in the trial. Following this incident, the trial was adjourned until next Wednesday.

The woman attacked the defendant after he had said that the allegations made against him by people of the assembly were false, explains the LDGL.

Inspired by traditional village assemblies when wisemen settled disagreements, sited on the grass, the gacaca (pronounced gatchatcha) courts are charged with trying the majority of the persons alleged to have been involved in the 1994 genocide which killed, according to the UN, nearly 800.000, primarily members of the Tutsi minority.

The gacaca trials are generally held on public sites.