U.N. court set to try Rwanda journalists for genocide

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Three Rwandan journalists are due to go on trial before a U.N. court on Monday, accused of inciting the genocide of up to 800,000 people in Rwanda in 1994.

Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza was director of public affairs in the Rwandan Foreign Affairs ministry in 1994, Hassan Ngeze was editor of Kangura, a Hutu extremist newspaper while Ferdinand Nahimana was the director of the "hate-radio," Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM).

The three men face charges of conspiracy and incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.

But their lawyers said at the weekend they were not sure the long-awaited trial would start at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, northern Tanzania.

The independent Hirondelle news agency quoted Ngeze and Barayagwiza's lawyers as saying the case should be postponed to settle various issues, including Barayagwiza's demand that two of the ICTR judges exclude themselves from the case after recently visiting Rwanda, where they were received by President Paul Kagame.

Barayagwiza is also contesting the decision to try him together with Ngeze and Nahimana.

"We don't know what is going to happen on Monday," John Floyd, Ngeze's American lawyer was quoted as saying. "We will have to wait and see."

Hirondelle reports on the activities of the ICTR, funded by the European, Dutch and Swiss governments.

Rwanda's media played a large part in the 100-day killing orgy that stunned the world between April and June 1994.

RTLM journalists preached hatred and exhorted Hutus, who make up about 85 percent of the population, to kill Tutsis, the minority who ruled Rwanda for centuries before independence in 1962.

The ICTR in June jailed Belgian journalist Georges Ruggiu for 12 years after he pleaded guilty to direct and public incitement to commit genocide.

Ruggiu worked for RTLM -- which Barayagwiza helped establish -- at the time of the genocide and became an infamous voice behind what came to be known as "hate radio."

Ruggiu is expected to testify against the three men.

Some 120,000 genocide suspects are rotting in Rwanda's overcrowded jails, many in appalling conditions, a recent Organization of African Unity report said. It estimated that it would take up to four centuries to try them all at the present rate of prosecutions.

In Rwanda itself, rights groups say 3,000 suspects have been tried since genocide trials began there in late 1996.

About 400 people have been sentenced to death while 500 others have been acquitted. Twenty-two were executed in 1998.

The ICTR's biggest conviction to-date is that of former Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, who was found guilty of involvement in the genocide in 1998.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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