Canada's first war crimes trial - Victim faces alleged rapist

A woman identified in court only as "C21" came face to face Tuesday with her alleged rapist for the first time since Rwanda's 1994 genocide at Canada's first trial under a new war crimes and crimes against humanity law.

Desire Munyaneza sat in the defendant's seat directly across from the woman as she told Quebec Superior Court he raped her five times while she lived at his father's home as the majority Hutu ethnic group slaughtered the Tutsis.

Munyaneza, 40, is a failed refugee applicant and resident of Toronto who was arrested in October, 2005, after a six-year federal police investigation

He is alleged to have committed widespread rape, murder and pillaging during the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis were murdered. If found guilty under a new war crimes and crimes against humanity law adopted in 2000, he faces a life sentence, which he would serve in Canada.

LINK: National Herald Tribune
LINK: Montreal Gazette
LINK:Photo credit