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Genocide suspects request plane crash report

    NAIROBI

    Two former Rwandan military leaders accused of genocide have asked the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to release an internal 1997 UN report concerning the circumstances of the shooting down on 6 April 1994 of the aircraft carrying former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported. Lawyers for the two suspects, Gratien Kabiligi and Aloys Ntabakuze, told the court on Wednesday that the report, prepared by a former ICTR investigator, was indispensable to the defence.

    Ntabakuze’s counsel said there was a direct link between Habyarimana’s death and his client’s indictment. At the time of the genocide, Kabiligi was head of military operations and Ntabakuze was head of the para-commando battalion, Hirondelle reported. The UN report, which has been placed “under seal” in the chambers of the Tribunal’s President, allegedly implicated the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the downing of the aircraft. The Rwandan government, of which the RPF is a key element, has rejected the allegations.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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