Kigali, Rwanda - The head of the Roman Catholic church in Rwanda appeared before a traditional community court Thursday to testify about what he knew and saw of the 1994 genocide in this small central African country.
It was not immediately clear whether charges were being considered against Archbishop Thaddee Ntihinyurwa in connection with the genocide orchestrated by the extremist Hutu government then in power.
A number of Hutu Catholic and Protestant church leaders are alleged to have played significant roles in the 100-day genocide, in which at least half a million people from the Tutsi ethnic minority and political moderates from the Hutu majority were killed.
Ntihinyurwa was summoned to give an account of the slaughter and those who took part in the killing from his former diocese in Cyangugu Province.
Ntihinyurwa, a Hutu who was Cyangugu bishop at the time, ordered people who had sought refuge in a parish church to leave and take shelter at a soccer stadium - where more than 600 people were killed by former government soldiers and Hutu militia members days later, said Michel Nshimiumukiza, a genocide survivor who said he was in the church.
Some 63,000 genocide suspects are detained in Rwanda, and justice authorities say that at least 761,000 people should stand trial for their role in the slaughter and chaos that came with it. The suspects represent 9.2 per cent of Rwanda's estimated 8.2 million people.
The newly established community courts, known as gacaca, are intended to speed up the trials and are separate from the conventional judicial system, which tries those accused of leading the genocide.
Those serving on the nine-judge gacaca courts are elected from their communities, which hold public meetings to gather evidence, identify victims and decide if suspects should be tried. The gacaca courts can impose penalties of up to life in prison. Only conventional courts can impose the death penalty.
There will be 12,000 gacaca courts when the system is in full operation. Most of those currently running are still in a pre-trial phase of investigation.
A UN tribunal based in neighbouring Tanzania tries those accused of masterminding the genocide. Three members of the clergy have appeared at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including a Roman Catholic priest who is still on trial.
In 2001, two Rwandan Catholic nuns were convicted by a Belgian court for aiding and abetting the mass murders. A Roman Catholic priest is on trial before Tanzania-based UN tribunal, accused of ordering the slaughter of 2,000 people who sought refuge in his church.