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Two defence witnesses ordered to appear before ICTR
2005-05-14 08:48:13
By Hirondelle News Agency
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha has ordered that a subpoena be served on two witnesses who were expected to testify on behalf of Colonel Aloys Simba.
According to a court decision received by Hirondelle News Agency, the court also requested that the government of Rwanda guarantee the security of the witnesses.
Simba, a former comrade-in-arms of the late president Juvenal Habyarimana, is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.
He is accused of having played a leading role in the organisation and supervision of the massacres of Tutsis in the two southern provinces of Butare and Gikongoro in 1994. He has pleaded not guilty.
The two witnesses, given the code names BJK 1 and HBK to protect their identities, reside in Rwanda and have been reluctant to come to testify for fear of their security.
The tribunal requested the Rwandan government 'to take all appropriate measures to ensure their protection and to provide any other assistance that may be requested by the Registry to facilitate their attendance at the trial,' said the decision.
Simba's lawyer, Sadikou Alao from Benin, had on March 29, filed a motion to have the tribunal order the two witnesses to appear.
The decision also ordered the Registry 'to prepare two subpoenas in accordance with this decision, addressed to Defence Witnesses BJK1 and HBK, and to communicate the subpoenas, with a copy of the present decision, to the relevant Rwandan authorities.
The issue of witnesses in this trial hit a dramatic turn last October when a prosecution witness, Jean Bosco Nyemazi, was murdered a few days after testifying against Simba.
The witness had already confessed to having participated in the 1994 genocide.
Soon after the assassination, the Rwandan government condemned the protective measures set up for witnesses as insufficient.
The ICTR on the other hand insisted that there was no link between Nyemazi’s murder and his testimony.
Colonel Aloys Simba's trial opened August 30, 2004 and officially stopped hearing evidence March 29, this year, although the motion to order the appearance of witnesses BJK1 and HBK was still pending.
The defence called a total of 20 witnesses, including the accused, while prosecuting attorney Richard Karegyesa of Uganda called 16.
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