Ex-Rwandan PM contests genocide conviction

Jean Kambanda: Forced to sign?

The former prime minister of Rwanda, Jean Kambanda, has appealed against his conviction for involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

I was forced to sign

Former Rwandan PM Jean Kambanda on his guilty plea

Nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by Hutu extremists during the genocide.

Kambanda, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in September 1998, told the appeals court of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha that he had not received enough advice before pleading guilty.

Jean Kambanda: Claims he didn't get the right lawyer

He had confessed to genocide crimes at the time he was prime minister in the interim government that presided over the genocide.

But he now wants to retract the confession arguing that he was not allowed a lawyer of his choice before signing his guilty plea.

"I was forced to sign," he claimed.

Agreement

"I signed an agreement which I did not believe in, and which I still do not believe in, in the hope that I would later have a good lawyer ... who would be able to explain everything to me," Kambanda told the ICTR appeals court.

He also said that his plea agreement had failed to recognise that Hutus and Tutsis were also killed or to take account of the crimes committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, RPF, which is now in power in Rwanda.

Jean Kambanda's conviction was one of the few major achievements of the UN Tribunal which has often been criticised for its slow pace of work, especially by the Rwandan Government.

Nuns accused

In a related development, the Belgian Government has announced that it is to try four Rwandans living in Belgium for their alleged involvement in the genocide.

The trial, expected to take place in September, will be the first such case heard in Belgium.

The four accused are two men, Vincent Ntezimana and Alphonse Higaniro and two Roman Catholic nuns, Gertrude Mukangango and Julienne Kizito.

Mr Ntezimana, a university professor, is accused of having devised an ideological platform for the genocide.

Mr Higaniro is accused of providing material and financial support for the Hutu hardline Interahamwe militia who carried out the massacres.

The Benedictine nuns, from Rwanda's southern Butare province, are accused of turning over victims who had sought refuge at their monastery over to Hutu militias.

The four accused persons fled to Belgium after the massacres.