Byumba - Two Rwandan genocide and war crimes defendants pleaded guilty to charges yesterday at the start of the largest group trial since Rwanda's 1994 bloodbath. The two are accused by eyewitnesses of killing sever people including two children.
The charge list cites 51 defendants accused of genocide and related crimes in Rwanda in 1994 when between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
Of the 51, three have died in detention and two did not appear in court because they are minors.
They are jointly accused of criminal association, looting and having killed at least 60 people on Muhura hill in the Byumba district, under the direction of one of those who died in detention.
"He himself raped a woman before sticking a bayonette in her genital organs. He killed another man and drank his blood," the prosecutor told the court.