The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Tanzania, began hearing arguments September 18 in the trial of retired pastor and former Seventh-day Adventist administrator Elizaphan Ntakirutimana.

Ntakirutimana and his son, Gerard, have pled not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection with the 1994 civil conflict in Rwanda, which claimed an estimated 800,000 lives. Ntakirutimana and his son have been accused of collusion in the murder of a large group of people taking shelter in an Adventist complex in Mugonero, western Rwanda.

“The courts of justice are the appropriate forum for the resolution of these allegations,” says Ray Dabrowski, an Adventist Church spokesperson. “We have cooperated with both the United Nations tribunal and with the defense lawyers of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana and his son.”

“As a church, we reject violence as a means for conflict resolution,” he adds. “At the heart of Christianity is a message of compassion, reconciliation, and love, which transcends all differences of language, race or nationality.”

Ntakirutimana, a Rwandan national who had lived in retirement near Laredo, Texas, since 1994, was indicted by the United Nations tribunal in June 1996. He was arrested in September of that year and extradicted from the United States in early 2000 to stand trial in Tanzania.

The Adventist Church has some 350,000 members in Rwanda and operates three schools, one hospital and nine clinics around the country. An estimated 10,000 Adventist Church members lost their lives in the inter-tribal conflict of 1994.