Genocide suspect defies his accusers

THE suspected architect of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide begins a fourth week of testimony today, defying accusers in the biggest trial to date over the African nation’s 100 days of slaughter.

Prosecutors at the UN’s Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda say former army colonel Theoneste Bagosora, now 64, was in charge as troops and machete-wielding militiamen butchered some 800,000 people.

But from the stand, Bagosora has accused rebel-turned-president Paul Kagame of triggering the bloodshed, blamed the chief of UN peacekeepers for the murder of Rwanda’s prime minister and even denied genocide took place.