A 14-YEAR-OLD OHIO GIRL HAS TAKEN HER OWN LIFE, AND HER FAMILY BELIEVES THAT SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYED A ROLE.(PHOTO).
Rwanda genocide suspect denies charges at ICC trial
A 66-year-old Rwandan on trial in the Netherlands for inciting and participating in the massacre of 3,000 Tutsis during the 1994 genocide denied the charges Wednesday, saying he was himself a victim, AFP reported.
Prosecutors have accused the man, identified as Eugene N., of being "personally involved in the killing of Tutsis", around 800,000 of whom were murdered over a three-month period.
They allege he went on a "rampage of looting and destruction" against Tutsis in the southern Rwanda district of Mbazi, torching houses and plundering possessions.
Shortly afterwards, an estimated 3,000 Tutsis who had fled to a stadium in Mbazi were killed.
The suspect faces charges of inciting and co-perpetrating genocide, as well as war crimes over the looting.
Genocide denial
But as his trial opened in The Hague, the suspect told judges: "I have not committed all the acts I am accused of."
"On the contrary, I was also one of the wanted persons. I have lost many family members during those horrific events," he told the court, pleading for his acquittal.
At the request of the defence, his face was hidden and his voice distorted, amid fears for his safety in Rwanda.
More than 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda between April and July 1994, according to UN figures, most of them from the Tutsi minority.
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