Belgian Charged in Rwanda Deaths of 10 Peacekeepers

A Belgian officer who helped lead the U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda last year has been charged with negligent homicide in the massacre of 10 of his men by Rwandan soldiers.

Col. Luc Marchal, who served as second-in-command of the U.N. force, will stand trial in a military tribunal charged with “homicide by lack of foresight and precaution,” the army said in a statement Friday.

The 10 Belgian peacekeepers were disarmed, tortured and killed by Rwandan soldiers April 7, 1994, the day after Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana died in a suspicious air crash.

His death sparked a wave of political and ethnic slaughter in which more than 500,000 people were killed, mostly members of the minority Tutsi group.

The Belgian paratroopers were guarding Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who was also killed by rampaging Hutu soldiers.

Families of the troopers have charged that Marchal and other officers placed the lightly armed peacekeepers in a position of excessive danger and failed to launch a rescue mission after their capture.

Prosecutor Bernard Dejemeppe said the investigation found that Marchal could have done much more to prevent the deaths, including using other U.N. forces present, seeking the advice of other officers and better assessing the risks his men faced.

Marchal denied the charges.