Four Rwandans, including two Benedictine nuns, charged with taking part in the 1994 massacre of 800,000 people in Rwanda went on trial in Belgium yesterday.
The two nuns, Sister Gertrude and Sister Maria Kisito, are charged with premeditated murder and crimes against humanity.
They are alleged to have taken part in the slaughter of more than 5,000 people who had sought refuge at their convent outside Butare, a southern city in the former Belgian colony.
The nuns, born Ms Consolata Mukangango and Ms Julienne Mukabutera, allegedly helped Hutu soldiers and militiamen to slaughter the Tutsi and Hutu moderates among them.
The other two defendants, Prof Vincent Ntezimana and businessman Mr Alphonse Higaniro, are charged with collaborating with the Hutu extremists in their hunt for Tutsis during the three months of carnage in the spring of 1994.
The accused were to plead innocent.
If found guilty, they could face life in prison.
The trial, presided over by Judge Luc Maes, is expected to conclude by May 31st, although its duration will be influenced by how many of about 180 Rwandan witnesses go to Belgium to testify.
The suspects are the first to be charged under a relatively new Belgian law that allows individuals, including non-Belgians, to be tried in Belgium for war crimes committed elsewhere.
Ms Alison Des Forges of Human Rights Watch said the law was helping bring to trial people overlooked by international tribunals more interested in prosecuting high-profile criminals.