The Trial of Georges Anderson Nderubumwe Rutaganda (former second Vice President of Interahamwe, member of the national and prefectorial committees of the Mouvement Républicaine National pour le Développment et la Démoctraie, and shareholder of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines) resumes tomorrow with the testimony of the 16th Prosecution witness. Hearing of the case, before Trial Chamber 1, was adjourned on 25 November 1997.

Rutaganda, born in 1958 in Masango commune, Gitarama prefecture in Rwanda, is charged with Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, and Violations of Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions.

It is alleged that Rutaganda participated in and/or ordered the killing of Tutsis at the Armgar garage near his office in Kigali and at Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO) school in Kicuriro commune. He is also alleged to have instructed the Interahamwe to track all the Tutsis and throw them into a river, and in June 1994 he ordered people to bury the bodies of victims in order to conceal his crimes from the international community.

Rutaganda was arrested on 10 October 1995 in Zambia and transferred to Arusha on 26 May 1996. His trial began on 18 March 1997, before the Trial Chamber 1 composed of Judge Laïty Kama, presiding, and Judges Lennart Aspegren and Navanethem Pillay. He is defended by Counsel Tiphaine Dickson from Canada.

Special Rapporteur of the United Nations in Rwanda in 1994 to Testify

On Monday 9 March 1998, Professor René Degni Segui, former Special Rapporteur of the United Nations in Rwanda in 1994, during the genocide, will begin his testimony as an expert witness in the case of Clement Kayishema and Obed Ruzindana Vs the Prosecutor.

Professor Degni Segui, who is presently with the National University of Ivory Coast, has been called by the Prosecution before Trial Chamber 2 composed of Judge William Sekule, presiding. and Judges Yakov Ostrovsky and Tafazzal Khan.