A group of 25 detainees in Rwanda has joined a former mayor convicted of genocide in a hunger strike.

The mayor, Jean-Paul Akayesu, stopped eating last Thursday to protest against the court's refusal to assign him the lawyer of his choice.

In a letter to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the twenty-five detainees said they were refusing food for the same reason.

Tribunal procedures state that defendants who cannot afford their own lawyers must choose one from an international list provided by the court.

The Tribunal, which was set up by the United Nations, is charged with bringing the architects of the 1994 genocide to justice.