Monday September 27, 2004 9:01 PM
Associated Press Writer
ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest accused of ordering the slaughter of 2,000 people who sought refuge in his church during Rwanda's genocide insisted his slain parishioners were in his prayers on Monday, as his lawyer dismissed the charges against his client as ``rumors.''
The Rev. Athanase Seromba made only terse comments during his court appearance Monday in his trial for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide, in which at least 500,000 minority Tutsis and political moderates from the Hutu majority were killed.
``My thoughts and prayers are with those numerous people who died in Nyange Parish,'' Seromba said, referring to Rwanda's western Kibuye Province, where some of the most brutal killings occurred.
During an initial appearance last year, Seromba pleaded innocent to charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity related to the 100-day slaughter orchestrated by the extremist Hutu government that was in power.
Seromba refused to show up in court Sept. 20 to protest U.N. plans to transfer some genocide trials and some convicts to Rwanda. At least 43 other suspects took part in the protest, saying they feared for their security and ability to get fair trials.
The transfers are meant to help ease the load on the Tanzania-based tribunal, which is trying to meet a U.N. Security Council deadline to complete investigations by the end of 2004, end trials by 2008 and close down by the end of 2010. The tribunal has yet to determine which trials would be transferred.
Prosecutors say Seromba, then parish priest in Nyange, organized the slaughter of 2,000 people who fled to the church to escape killings by the extremist Interahamwe militia, the army and neighbors.
``The whole truth will come to light about his alleged involvement and put an end to rumors,'' said Alfred Pognon, a lawyer for Seromba.
A number of Hutu church leaders are alleged to have played significant roles in the genocide, with bishops, priests and nuns splitting along ethnic lines as in the rest of the country. Thousands of Rwandans were massacred in churches during the slaughter.
Seromba is the third member of the clergy to appear at the tribunal.
Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor in Kibuye, was convicted in February of genocide and crimes against humanity, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Samuel Musabyimana, a former Anglican bishop in Rwanda, died in a Tanzanian hospital in January of an unspecified illness while awaiting trial at the U.N. tribunal. He had been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.
Two Rwandan nuns were convicted by a Belgian court for aiding and abetting the genocide.
Prosecutors allege that Seromba, a Hutu, ordered the Hutu militia to kill the Tutsi who sought shelter in his church.
Seromba ordered the demolition of the church to kill survivors of the initial raid, prosecutors said.
The church was bulldozed and its roof collapsed, killing more than 2,000 Tutsis gathered inside. The few survivors were killed by the Interahamwe.
Seromba then ordered the Interahamwe to clean the ``rubbish,'' after which the victims were dumped into mass graves, prosecutors said.
The region around Seromba's church was home to some 6,000 Tutsis before the genocide, but almost all were killed in the slaughter.