Missionary ‘astonished’ at genocide charge

A RWANDAN community court charged a Belgian missionary with inciting and planning the 1994 genocide that left more than half a million people dead.

Guy Theunis, 60, is the first foreigner to appear before the courts set up to investigate and try more than 760,000 people suspected in the 100-day slaughter.

It were orchestrated by the extremist Hutu government then in power and targeted mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic minority. Moderate Hutus were also among the victims.

Theunis insisted the allegations were based on false information, but the nine-judge panel on Sunday classified him among the alleged leaders. As a result his case was transferred to a conventional court, where he faces a possible death penalty if convicted.

Formerly the editor of Rwanda’s periodical Le Dialogue, Theunis allegedly incited the genocide by reproducing articles from Kangura, a newspaper that promoted killing Tutsis.

Kangura’s editor, Hassan Ngeze, has been convicted by a UN tribunal and sentenced to life in prison.

“I am astonished to hear all these allegations levelled against me,” Theunis told the court, speaking in Rwanda’s national language, Kinyarwanda.

He said while he sometimes wrote articles to press for human rights, he “never republished articles from Kangura, but just translated as part of a press review.”

Theunis, who had worked in Rwanda since 1970, settled in South Africa after the genocide. He was arrested September 6 while travelling through Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.

An international rights activist was the only person to defend the missionary during the proceedings.

Alison de Forges of Human Rights Watch said she knows Theunis as a rights advocate. She said some accusations levelled went beyond the legal period covered by community courts, known as Gacaca.

Some genocide survivors were harsh in their accusations against Theunis, who was wearing the pink shirt and shorts worn by prisoners in Rwanda.

Jean Damascene Bizimana told the court: “Instead of preaching the Gospel, the missionary was preaching divisions” between Tutsis and Hutus.

People accused of leading the genocide are tried in the conventional justice system, where they face stiffer penalties. Lesser charges call for a trial at a Gacaca court.