Three former Rwandan government ministers and a high-ranking official accused of taking part in the country's 1994 genocide pleaded not guilty at a UN tribunal today.
Among the defendants are Andre Rwamakuba, a doctor and former education minister accused of walking around a hospital with an axe hanging from his belt, striking any ethnic Tutsis he found in wards or corridors.
Three other defendants being tried together in a separate trial from Mr Rwamakuba are former interior minister Edouard Karemera, former industry and mines minister Joseph Nzirorera and ex-director general for foreign affairs Mathieu Ngirumpatse.
"They pleaded not guilty. Rwamakuba had a plea of not guilty entered on his behalf," said a tribunal spokesman, who did not say why Mr Rwamakuba was not in court.
The four men were senior figures in the interim government that took power in April 1994 after a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down, triggering the massacres.
Government-sponsored Hutu militants slaughtered an estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in 100 days of bloodshed. The four accused face several counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Prosecutors say Mr Karemera, Mr Nzirorera and Mr Ngirumpatse formed the executive leadership of then-dominant National Movement for Development and Democracy party and were responsible for controlling the Interahamwe militia that did much of the killing.
The UN tribunal, based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, is keen to show progress in trying former top officials to counter accusations of inefficiency by Rwanda's government.
The court has handed down 21 convictions and three acquittals since it began work in 1995. Trials are in progress for 26 detainees and another 16 are awaiting trial while another nine suspects are still at large.