Charges amended in an effort to establish joint trials

In Arusha, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday granted the prosecution leave to amend the indictments against three of six accused it wants to group in a joint trial. The three are former mayor of Muganza Elie Ndayambaje, former Rwandan Minister for Family and Women's Affairs Pauline Nyiramasuhuko and former militia leader Arsene Ntahobali, the Hirondelle news agency reported. Nyiramasuhuko and her son Ntahobali had already been jointly charged. The new charges include conspiracy to commit genocide, complicity in genocide and public incitement to commit genocide. Additional crimes against humanity charges include one of rape against Nyiramasuhuko, who prosecutors allege encouraged mass rape in Butare prefecture, southern Rwanda, during the 1994 genocide.

The prosecution's efforts to link the trials - in order to speed up cases at the ICTR, which has passed only five sentences since 1994 - was held up for almost a year by a defence lawyers' appeal regarding who could hear the indictment amendment and joinder motions, but a decision by the ICTR Appeals Court in the Hague, Netherlands, on 3 June that the composition of trial chambers was not fixed allows the possibility of group trials.

Food prices on the rise

Food prices, which declined in the first half of the year, have started to increase in Rwanda following reduced yields from the recently-harvested 1999 B agricultural season, FAO said in its annual report on food supply and crop prospects in sub-Saharan Africa. The report said a delay in the start of the rainy season and late plantings combined with an early end of the rains had caused the reduced yields, particularly for cereals in high altitude areas. Food production was also negatively affected in some areas by a shortage of agricultural inputs, mainly seeds. In the northwest and parts of Kibuye and Gitarama, food production remained seriously constrained by large-scale population displacement, the report added.