Ex-ministers face genocide trial

Genocide memorials have been erected across Rwanda

Two ex-ministers and two other senior officials in Rwanda have gone on trial on charges of playing key roles in the 1994 killing of some 800,000 people.

Ex-Industry and Mines Minister Joseph Nzirorera is accused of paying Hutu extremist militiamen according to the number of Tutsis they killed.

Former Mayor Jean Mpambara allegedly told Tutsis to take refugee in a parish, before ordering their killing.

Separately, an ex-director of a Rwandan radio station was arrested in Gabon.

Joseph Serugendo worked for Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which urged the militias to kill Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

He is accused of leading some of the militia groups.

He is set to be transferred to the United Nations court in Tanzania, established to try the ringleaders of the genocide.

Appeal rejected

Former Interior Minister Edouard Karemera and Mathieu Ngirumpatse, an ex-director general for foreign affairs, are facing trial alongside Mr Nzirorera.

ARUSHA TRIBUNAL Convicted: 22 Acquitted: 3 On trial: 25 Awaiting trial: 17

All were top officials of Rwanda's ruling party, the National Revolutionary Movement for Democracy and Development.

Earlier, an appeals court sitting in the Netherlands rejected the appeal against the life sentence imposed on former Culture and higher Education Minister Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda.

The ruling was broadcast live to the Tanzanian town of Arusha, where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is based.

The Arusha tribunal has so far convicted 22 people of genocide and acquitted three. Twenty-five trials are under way and 17 people are waiting for their trials to start.