DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 8 (Xinhuan) -- The former Rwandan minister in charge of family and women affairs has denied before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) the charges thatshe gave rape orders during the 1994 massacre, local media reported Thursday.

    Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 59, is being tried for charges of genocide and crimes against humanity including rape by the United Nations court based in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha.

    "Among things I might have committed I could not do that one," the ex-minister told the UN court during a cross-examination session.

    A protected prosecution witness, code-named FAE for personal safety, told the UN court that Nyiramasuhuko had distributed condoms to Hutu youths so that they might use them to rape Tutsi women before killing them.

    The former minister, the only woman indicted for the Rwandan genocide and crimes against humanity in 1994, was alleged to have encouraged local pro-Hutu militia to kill Tutsis and rape Tutsi women and girls in Butare in southern Rwanda.

    Nyiramasuhuko pleaded innocent to these charges.

    The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, with its mission to expire in 2008, has so far convicted 22 people and acquitted three, with 25 suspects currently under trial and 16 in custody awaiting trial.

    Fourteen suspects are still on the run from the UN court. Enditem