The trial is due to resume on Monday of the man accused of masterminding the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and of the only woman to have been detained over the massacre by the United Nations court trying the suspects.
The trial of Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, a former head of cabinet in the Rwandan defence ministry, and three other senior military commanders is considered to be one of the most important in the history of the UN court in Arusha, Tanzania.
Bagosora is accused of orchestrating the genocide of April-July 1994, when Hutu extremists murdered least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
He is being tried alongside Brigadier-General Gratien Kabiligi, the former head of military operations in the Rwandan army; Lieutenant-Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, former commander for the northern Gisenyi region; and Major Aloys Ntabakuze, former commando batallion commander in the Kigali region.
The four face charges of genocide, other war crimes and crimes against humanity. They have all pleaded not guilty.
The "trial of the military", as it has come to be known, began in April 2001 and is the longest ongoing case before the UN tribunal.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is also due on Monday to resume the trial of former minister Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the only woman detained by the court for alleged involvement in the genocide.
Nyiramasuhuko, who was family minister during the 1994 carnage, is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity along with five other people - her son Arsene Shalom Ntahobali; two former administrators in the southern region of Butare, Sylvain Nsabimana and Alphonse Nteziryato; and two former mayors, Elie Ndayambaje and Joseph Kanyabashi.
THEY HAVE ALL PLEADED NOT GUILTY: Nyiramasuhuko, whose trial began in June 2001, is notably charged with ordering the rape of Tutsi women. Several witnesses have already testified to being sexually assaulted on her orders.
As far as the ICTR is concerned, the crime of rape covers incitement as well as the act itself.
The prosecution has already summoned 56 witnesses in Nyiramasuhuko's trial, which was adjourned on July 14, and is expected on Monday to call three more and an expert on Butare, which saw some of the worst bloodshed.
French professor Andre Guichaoua is the author of a report entitled "Butare, rebel provincial administration" which sets out the historical reasons for the fight for supremacy between Tutsis and Hutus parties in the region, where about one quarter of the genocide victims were slain.
The ICTR was created in 1994 to try the suspected ringleaders of the genocide. Since it began operating in 1997, it has convicted just 20 people and acquitted three.
Those convicted include the then prime minister, Jean Kambanda, and his ministers of information and higher education, Eliezer Niyitegeka and Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, who were all given life sentences.
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