U.N. Court To Rule On Rwanda Genocide Planners

Bagosora faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has pleaded not guilty.

A U.N. court trying the masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide will pass judgment on Thursday on a former army colonel accused of being an architect of the 100-day slaughter.

The Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has accused Theoneste Bagosora, 67, of being in charge of the troops and Interahamwe Hutu militia who butchered some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

In its indictment, the ICTR said that before the killings, Bagosora stormed out of peace talks in Tanzania saying he was returning to Rwanda to "prepare the apocalypse".

Prosecutors said Bagosora, formerly a cabinet director in the Defence Ministry, assumed control of military and political affairs in Rwanda when President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down.

Bagosora faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has pleaded not guilty.

The ICTR will also deliver judgment on Thursday in the case against businessman and Habyarimana's brother-in-law Protais Zigiranyirazo, known as "Monsieur Z".

Zigiranyirazo was accused of being a member of the Akazu, the small yet powerful ruling elite of Hutu family members and relatives who are believed to have plotted to exterminate the minority Tutsis.

He is alleged to have been a member of the notorious Zero Network of death squads which killed hundreds of Tutsis and opposition leaders in the years leading up to the genocide.

In their indictment, prosecutors said Zigiranyirazo ordered or authorised roadblocks to be set up near his three residences and paid militia to dig a mass grave outside his compound to bury those killed.

ICTR also accused Zigiranyirazo of arming, training and clothing the Interahamwe militia who conducted most of the slaughter and arming the local population in Gisenyi.

Since it began work in 1997, the court has delivered 34 judgements. Five of them were acquittals.

The court has until the end of the year to wind up its activities and until 2010 to hear all appeals. The U.N. General Assembly is discussing whether to extend the court's mandate.