DATE=04/11/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-288578

TITLE=RWANDA GENOCIDE TRIALS (L)

BYLINE=KATY SALMON

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT=

INTRO: Defense lawyers for four senior Rwandan soldiers accused of masterminding the 1994 genocide

in Rwanda held a press conference in Nairobi today. They argue their clients cannot get a fair trial

because the court where they are being prosecuted is controlled by the Rwandan government. Katy Salmon has more from Nairobi.

TEXT: The five lawyers are part of an international team hired to defend former Rwandan army

commander, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, and three of his colleagues against charges of genocide and

crimes against humanity.

It is alleged that these four military men conceived, planned and implemented the 1994 genocide in

Rwanda in which some 800-thousands Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred.

One of the attorneys -- Kennedy Ogeto -- says his clients cannot get a fair trial from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, because it is being controlled by the government of

Rwanda, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or R-P-F.

///OGETO ACT///

It has never been independent because there has been a lot of pressure from Rwanda, enormous

pressure from Rwanda, to do certain things which (do not conform) with the demands of justice. The

main objective of this Tribunal is to try and restore reconciliation, restore peace in Rwanda and this

cannot be achieved if both parties to the conflict in 1994 are not brought to book. And the Tribunal is

terribly failing. The prosecutor keeps talking about indicting R-P-F members who were active participants

in the conflict in 1994, but she doesn't keep her promise.

///END ACT///

When the Rwandan genocide took place, there was a civil war in the country between the Hutu-dominated

government and the Tutsi-dominated R-P-F rebels.

The defense lawyers argue that the mass killings which took place in 1994 were not an orchestrated

genocide but a result of this fighting. They charge that the R-P-F should also be prosecuted as it was

responsible for some 200-thousand Hutu deaths during the war.

Another attorney in this case -- Otachi Omanwa -- says the R-P-F should also be prosecuted for shooting down the plane of then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana in April of 1994. He believes this event sparked off the genocide.

///ACT OMANWA///

If you say we are charging top men of the Rwandan army, what about top people in the R-P-F? The

defense belief is that the R-P-F triggered off the events of 1994 by shooting down the plane. That is our

theory. We have been challenging the prosecutor for a long time to do that. She does not want to do it. And

we believe it is because she knows that if she does it she is going to land on the R-P-F.

///END ACT///

The defense lawyers argue that the Tribunal is reluctant to prosecute the

Rwandan government because it will retaliate by dissuading witnesses of the

genocide from testifying in court. Earlier this month, 10 would-be

prosecution witnesses withdrew, accusing defense investigators of genocide

crimes and/or having family ties with the accused.(Signed)

NEB/KS/SAB