The High Court Chamber for International Crimes in Nyanza, on Tuesday, March 10, opened the substantive hearing in the case of two top commanders of the FDLR militia.

The FDLR comprises remnants of masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda in which more than one million people were killed.

The duo, the former militia group spokesperson Ignace Nkaka, best known as La Forge Fils Bazeye, and Lt Col Jean-Pierre Nsekanabo, the head of the intelligence of the outfit, was arrested last year by Congolese authorities, are now being charged with terrorism, among others.

They were extradited to Rwanda by DR Congo.

Before being extradited, Congolese security forces had intercepted and arrested them, in December 2018, at the Bunagana border, which links Uganda to DR Congo, as they returned from a trip in Uganda.

In April 2019, they appeared before a judge at Gasabo Primary Court in Kigali.

In January, the High Court Chamber for International Crimes postponed the substantive hearing of the case involving two former leaders of the FDLR militia group; Lt Col. Ignace Nkaka alias La Forge Fils Bazeye and Lt Col Jean-Pierre Nsekanabo.

The January postponement was the second in a row by the Nyanza-based court.

The first trial was postponed in December last year as Beata Dukeshinema who was Nsekanabo’s lawyer threw in the towel saying that her conscience did not allow her to continue representing him owing to the crimes he stands accused of.

Court then pushed the trial to give time to Nsekanabo to get another lawyer.

The court had ruled to postpone the substantive hearing to today so that all parties come ready to start the case.

Uganda meeting

During their initial hearing, court heard that the duo was initially arrested while coming from a meeting in the Ugandan capital Kampala, where they had been to a meeting with leaders of Rwanda National Congress, a terrorist group.

The meeting was set up by Ugandan state minister for regional cooperation, Philemon Mateke.