Anglican bishop accused of genocide

An Anglican bishop today denied he assisted in genocide when he was accused of crimes against humanity at a brief UN court hearing.

Bishop Samuel Musabyimana, 44, stood before the court in Arusha, Tanzania, wearing a pink prison uniform with a cross hanging from his neck as the charges of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, and extermination were read.

Musabyimana was arrested in Kenya last week.

He allegedly took part and encouraged the killing of Tutsi villagers in Rwanda’s Gitarama province in 1994 during the government-orchestrated killings of more than 500,000 people, most of them Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

The indictment alleges that when refugees arrived at Musabyimana’s Shyogwe Diocese, the bishop instructed his subordinates to register them according to their ethnic groups.

The list was later used to select Tutsi refugees who were taken to nearby sites to be killed.

The bishop is alleged to have paid the militiamen who carried out the killings and to have been present at the some of the killings. Musabyimana denied all the allegations.

‘‘I don’t carry any blood on my hands. Christ will not abandon us,’’ he said in his short emotional statement.

The tribunal currently has 45 genocide suspects in custody.

Eight have been sentenced for their role in the genocide, three of whom have filed appeals against their sentences.