The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Monday opened its largest genocide trial of six suspects.

The trial, known as the Butare Case, was scheduled to begin last Thursday but was adjourned due to lack of defense witnesses, according to reports reaching here from the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha.

The case was first heard on June 12, 2001, and involved a mother and a son and four others jointly accused of taking part in genocide in the Butare prefecture in southern Rwanda.

The mother, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, is the former Rwandan minister for family and women affairs while the son, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, is a former militia leader.

The defense team has so far called 26 witnesses for the mother and 13 witnesses for the son.

The United Nations court, based in Arusha, has been hearing cases of a trial involving four former Rwandan military leaders.

The Butare trial, when fully underway, will be therefore the largest single trial of Rwandan genocide suspects.

The ICTR was established in 1998 to deal with the trials of the Rwandan genocide suspects and accused.

The Rwanda genocide in 1994 claimed 800,000 lives in a space of 100 days.

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2006)