Former Rwandan colonel pleads not guilty to genocide charges at UN tribunal

A former Rwandan army colonel accused of committing war crimes during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda entered a not guilty plea today before the United Nations war crimes tribunal.

Appearing before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for the first time since his arrest last February in the Netherlands, Lt. Col. Ephrem Setako, 55, is charged with six counts of genocide, or complicity in genocide, murder and extermination as crimes against humanity, and violations of the Geneva Convention.

The prosecution alleges that Colonel Setako planned, instigated, ordered and participated in the killing of Tutsi civilians in Ruhengeri and Kigali-ville prefectures. He is also accused of distributing arms to members of the Rwanda armed forces, the Presidential Guard, the Interahamwe, the Civil Defence Forces and other soldiers engaged in the killings.

Colonel Setako is also said to have committed the war crimes in concert with others who are also facing charges against before the Tribunal. Currently, he is being kept at the Tribunal’s detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania.