23.06.09 - ICTR/HATEGEKIMANA - WITNESS: NO ETHNIC TUTSI WAS KILLED AT NGOMA MILITARY CAMP ENTRANCE

23 June 2009 By

Arusha, 23 June 2009 (FH) - The second defence witness for genocide-accused Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana denied on Tuesday before the International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that ethnic Tutsis were killed in 1994 at road blocks at the entry of Ngoma Military Camp, in the suburbs of Butare, southern Rwanda, which was commanded by the suspect.

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Accused of genocide, Hategekimana, who has claimed his innocence, started his defence case on Monday.

Designated by code name "MZA" to protect the identity, the second witness to come to the rescue of the defendant, Tuesday affirmed that to the best of his knowledge nobody had been killed at the entrance of the small military camp.

He added that the road block at the entry of the garrison had existed for a long time and refuted allegations that it was set up shortly after the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana on 6 April, 1994.

The trial opened on 16 March.

The prosecutor rested his case on 4 May.

A native of the former commune of Mugina, central Rwanda, Hategekimana, was indicted for crimes committed at Butare University and its surroundings in 1994.

Hategekimana was part of the five defendants that the ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, had sought in vain to transfer to Rwandan courts for trial.

ER/MM/SC/GF