ARUSHA, Tanzania (Reuters) - Five former Rwandan politicians have pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of genocide and crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the non-governmental news agency Hirondelle said. Former Education Minister Andre Rwamakuba burst into tears and sobbed out his not guilty plea, Hirondelle said. Jointly charged with him were Edouard Karemera - former Interior Minister in the interim government that presided over the 1994 genocide - and two former officials in the ruling party of late president Juvenal Habyarimana. They were Mathieu Ngirumpatse, who was party president, and Joseph Nzirorera, who was secretary-general. The former mayor of Mukingo, Juvenal Kajelijeli, was also charged with them. The ICTR was set up by the U.N. in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha to put on trial those suspected of being the main architects of the genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. Four of the accused pleaded not guilty on their own account, but Karemera refused to plead without a defence counsel. The court registered a plea of "not guilty" on his behalf. Karemera`s lawyer, Emmanuel Leclerc of Belgium, withdrew from the case just before this initial appearance. In a letter read to the court, Leclerc explained that "The events in Rwanda in 1994 are referred to by some as genocide and by others as massacres... . So far as I am concerned, the only correct term is genocide. "Mr Karemera holds a different opinion. As we do not define the 1994 events in the same terms, it would seem to me very difficult to continue defending my client without doing him a disservice," he said. The five were arrested on different dates in June and October last year - Karemera in Togo, Ngirumpatse in Mali, Nzirorera and Kajelijeli in Benin, and Rwamaku- ba in Namibia. Their case resumes at an unspecified date, with the hearing of a number of motions from the defence.