In Tanzania, trial resumes for priest accused in Rwandan genocide

Published: 2005-10-31

KIGALI, Rwanda (CNS) -- The trial of a Catholic priest accused of ordering his church destroyed to kill Tutsi refugees inside it during the 1994 Rwandan genocide resumed at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. The defense planned to argue that Father Athanase Seromba was innocent of all charges against him. He is charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity for his alleged actions in Kibuye, a province in western Rwanda. Father Seromba, who was the priest at Nyange Parish in Kibuye when the genocide began, is accused of conspiring with local authorities to have more than 2,000 Tutsis killed within the church. He is alleged to have ordered all doors to the church blocked when the Interhamwe -- or Hutu -- militias and others attacked the Tutsis inside. Father Seromba is also accused of ordering his church destroyed by a bulldozer in order to kill the remaining Tutsi refugees inside. After the genocide, Father Seromba fled Rwanda and eventually ended up working for the church in Italy under an alias. He surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2002.

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