Former doctor implicated in Rwandan genocide says he tried to save Tutsis at trial in France

By Nur Asena Erturk

A former doctor who was implicated in the Rwandan genocide said at his trial in France that he tried to save Tutsis, according to media reports.

The trial for Sosthene Munyemana, 68, started Nov. 14 in Paris, the La Provence newspaper reported Wednesday.

During a hearing at the criminal court, Munyemana rejected the accusations that he held a group of Tutsis in an office in southern Rwanda, who were later taken to other places and executed.

Munyemana said the office was a refuge for the Tutsis and that he tried to save them.

He added that he was not expecting the Tutsis to be killed where they were taken, and admitted that he might have been tricked.

The trial will end Dec. 19.

The genocide, in which more than 1 million people were killed, targeted the minority Tutsi ethnic group by Hutu extremists after the death of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira in a plane crash on April 6, 1994.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during a bloodshed that lasted 100 days.