RWANDA'S first genocide trial opened yesterday with the accused lacing the death penalty if convicted on charges of slaughtering some 800,000 Tutsis along with moderate Hutus in the 1994 massacres.
Rwandan state radio broadcast live the opening of the trial of Mr Deo Bizimana, a former medical assistant, and Mr Egide Gatanazi a former local administrator, both charged with organising the killing of about 75 per cent of the country's Tutsis.
They are the first suspects to be tried under a genocide law.
About 90,000 Rwandans are crammed into jails since being accused of taking part in the 1994 slaughter by Hutu troops, militiamen and mobs.
Both men, at Kibungo, 100 km south east of Kigali, are accused under Category One of the law, said Ms Marie van der Elst, spokeswoman for the UN Commissioner for Human Rights.
They are both accused of organising massacres and if convicted by the tribunal are liable to the death penalty. There is one opportunity to appeal.
Justice ministry officials say they hope that within the next month 12 tribunals will be operating across the country.
They say they do not plan trials for all detained suspects because they believe many will confess in return for leniency.
A Hutu refugee lobby group, the Rally for the Return of Refugees and Democracy to Rwanda, dismissed the trials as "a mockery of justice" by the Rwanda Patriotic Front which took power in July 1994 and ended the killings.