Catholic priest stands trial for genocide

THE landmark trial of a Rwandan Catholic priest accused of supervising the massacre of 2,000 of his Tutsi parishioners during the central African country’s 1994 genocide opened in his absence.

The accused, 41-year-old Athanase Seromba, was among 44 detainees at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which sits in Tanzania, to boycott proceedings yesterday to protest plans to move detainees and case files to Rwanda.

It is the first time a Catholic cleric faces trial at the ICTR. Courts in Rwanda have convicted several priests - although two were later acquitted on appeal - and, in 2001, a Belgian court found two Catholic nuns guilty of playing a role in the genocide.