A 66-year-old Rwandan on trial in the Netherlands denies inciting and participating in the massacre of 3,000 Tutsis, claiming he was also a victim.
THE HAGUE: A 66-year-old Rwandan on trial in the Netherlands for inciting and participating in the massacre of 3,000 Tutsis during the 1994 genocide denied the charges Wednesday, saying he was himself a victim.
Prosecutors have accused the man, identified as Eugene N., of being “personally involved in the killing of Tutsis”, around 800,000 of whom were murdered over a three-month period.
They allege he went on a “rampage of looting and destruction” against Tutsis in the southern Rwanda district of Mbazi, torching houses and plundering possessions.
Shortly afterwards, an estimated 3,000 Tutsis who had fled to a stadium in Mbazi were killed.
The suspect faces charges of inciting and co-perpetrating genocide, as well as war crimes over the looting.
But as his trial opened in The Hague, the suspect told judges: “I have not committed all the acts I am accused of.”
“On the contrary, I was also one of the wanted persons. I have lost many family members during those horrific events,” he told the court, pleading for his acquittal.
At the request of the defence, his face was hidden and his voice distorted, amid fears for his safety in Rwanda.
More than 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda between April and July 1994, according to UN figures, most of them from the Tutsi minority.
According to Dutch authorities, the suspect has long been in the crosshairs of Rwandan prosecutors, who issued an international arrest warrant for him in 2014.
However, the man has obtained Dutch nationality and cannot be extradited to Rwanda. He has lived in the Netherlands since 1998.
Dutch investigators have been looking into his case since 2020, interviewing dozens of witnesses including in Rwanda.
N.’s defence lawyers told the court their client did “everything in his power” to prevent the genocide and that he finds it “unbearable” to be now accused of those crimes.
One lawyer said that N. had suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts as he relives the trauma of the violence.
“This case has torn his scars open again. He is a broken man,” she told the court.
The trial at the district court of The Hague is set to last until June 29, with a verdict expected on August 28.
European courts have tried and convicted several dozen people involved in the Rwanda genocide under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows them to hear the most serious crimes even if committed abroad.
