Former Rwanda mayor boycotts his U.N. genocide trial

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Rwandan genocide suspect Laurent Semanza said on Tuesday he would boycott his trial before a U.N. tribunal to protest court decisions he said were unfair.

The independent Hirondelle news agency said Semanza, a mayor during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, told his lawyers he did not want to be represented in court and that he would not appear before the judges.

Semanza is charged with 14 counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, including inciting ethnic Hutu militiamen to rape Tutsi women.

On Monday he lost a number of motions which the judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda termed "frivolous," including an application that the trial be adjourned because he was suffering dental problems.

A doctor was called and pronounced him fit.

He said in a letter to his lawyers these decisions made him believe he would not be tried fairly.

"Consequently, I am forced to stop appearing or being represented in this trial unless and until the chamber reverses its decision and leaves my team free choice in its means of defense," he said.

The judges rejected Semanza's argument and ordered his lawyers to continue representing him in his absence, saying he was trying to manipulate the court.

The court, based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, was set up to try senior officials suspected of participating in Rwanda's genocide in which some 800,000 people were slaughtered in just 100 days.

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