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Genocide survivors: French troops raped us
POSTED: 11:12 a.m. EST, December 13, 2006

KIGALI, Rwanda (Reuters) -- French soldiers raped Rwandan women who had sought refuge in their bases during the African country's 1994 genocide and looked on as others did the same, witnesses told a commission on Wednesday.

France denies any wrongdoing by its troops, who formed part of a U.N. peacekeeping force, and has declined to comment on a string of charges from Kigali about its role during the three months of massacres.

French-Rwandan relations sank last month after a French judge called for Rwandan President Paul Kagame to stand trial over the shooting down of a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana. His killing was widely seen as the trigger for the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people died.

Two ethnic Tutsi women -- identified as "Witness Three" and "Witness Two" for security reasons and speaking from a hidden area at the commission -- said they had been raped by French troops after fleeing machete-wielding Hutu militia gangs.

"The French used to come to our refugee tents and take girls including myself to give us beer and cigarettes," said Witness Three. "When we became drunk, they would forcefully start to have sexual intercourse with us, many French soldiers at the same time, one after the other.

"The French, including a colonel, forced me to have oral (and direct) sex with them, at times taking pictures of us."

Witness Two said she had sought shelter at a French base while looking for her missing children. She said a French soldier looked on as she was raped by a Rwandan man.

"A Rwandan man entered my tent and asked me why I was there ... As I explained, a French soldier entered, hit and pushed me down. Then the Rwandan man forcefully slept with me and the French soldier stood on watching."

Wednesday's testimonies were the first direct witness accounts to the commission accusing French troops of rape.

On Tuesday a man only identified as "Witness Four" told the commission he saw French troops take Tutsi women from bushes where they were cowering in fear of Hutu militiamen. He said the women later told him they were raped by the soldiers.

Witness Four also said French soldiers beat him and accused him of helping Kagame's Tutsi rebels, and he showed the commission scars on his buttocks he said they inflicted.

He also said he survived being thrown into the forest from a French military helicopter flying at low altitude.

France, which sent in forces under a United Nations-authorized operation, said it had no comment on Wednesday, noting only that the commission was set up by the Rwandan authorities and that it had held its own inquiry.

"Also, we are collaborating with the International Tribunal for Rwanda," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told a regular media briefing.

A French judicial source said last month anti-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere had written to the United Nations asking for Kagame to be brought before the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Kagame has cut diplomatic ties and thousands have joined anti-French protests since Bruguiere's accusations. Kigali accuses France of trying to distract attention from what it says was Paris' role in the genocide.

This week the Rwandan commission began a second round of hearings into allegations French forces trained and armed the local extremists who planned the bloodshed.
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Army drops death penalty for rape-murder defendant
POSTED: 8:56 p.m. EST, December 13, 2006


FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- The Army dropped the death penalty Wednesday as a possible sentence for a soldier charged with rape and murder in the deaths of a 14-year-old girl and three others in Iraq.

Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 22, now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted, said Maj. Don Lobeda, an attorney with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Spielman, one of four soldiers charged in the March 12 attack in Mahmoudiya, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad, sat motionless as charges were read during an arraignment hearing. An April 2 trial date was set.

Investigators said the soldiers tried to burn the girl's body to destroy evidence of the assault.

The killings in Mahmoudiya were considered among the worst in a series of alleged attacks on civilians and other abuses by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

"We look forward to trial and proving that Jesse was not involved in rape and murder," attorney Craig Carlson, who leads Spielman's defense team, told The Associated Press by telephone.

The military is preparing to court-martial other soldiers charged in the attack.

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, is the only soldier now facing possible execution if convicted.

Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, 19, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted in a court-martial next year.

Both Howard and Cortez deferred entering pleas during their arraignments this past fall.

Spc. James P. Barker, 23, pleaded guilty last month to rape and murder as part of an agreement to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to 90 years in prison and is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

In a hearing last month, Barker did not name Spielman and Howard as participants in the rape and murders, but he said Spielman was at the house when the assault took place and had known what the others intended to do.

Prosecutors have alleged Howard was at a checkpoint monitoring the radio and knew what the others were planning.

Former Pfc. Steven Green has pleaded not guilty in federal court to rape and murder charges.

Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek the death penalty against Green, who was discharged from the Army for a personality disorder.

The soldiers belonged to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, which completed a yearlong deployment to Iraq in November.

Four other soldiers from the division's 187th Infantry Regiment also face murder charges stemming from the death of three Iraqi detainees near Samarra. The first of those soldiers, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, is scheduled to be court-martialed in January.