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Rwanda General guilty of genocide
18:03 - 17.05.11
Former Rwandan army chief Augustin Bizimungu has been sentenced to 30
years in prison for his role in the 1994 genocide.
According to the BBC News, the UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda also
convicted ex-paramilitary police chief Augustin Ndindiliyimana but
released him for time already served.
Two other senior generals were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the
100-day genocide.
Bizimungu and Ndindiliyimana are two of the most senior figures to be
sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),
established in Arusha in neighbouring Tanzania to try the ringleaders
behind the killings.
"It is a welcome decision by the ICTR. In its own circumstances, that
is a big sentence, even if many people would think he [Bizimungu]
deserved the highest," Martin Ngoga, Rwanda's chief prosecutor, told
Reuters news agency.
The court ruled that Bizimungu, who was arrested in Angola in 2002,
had complete control over the men he commanded in 1994, AFP news
agency said.
Ndindiliyimana, however, was said to have only had "limited control"
over his forces and was described as being opposed to the killing.
Having already spent 11 years in jail following his arrest in Belgium
in 2000, Ndindiliyimana was released.
Both men were found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Bizimungu appeared unmoved when he was handed his sentence. The
59-year-old was accused of going to the homes of militants and
ordering them to kill all those from the Tutsi ethnic group - people
he referred to as cockroaches.
He was said to have promised weapons, as well as fuel to burn houses.
Major Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, the former commander of a
reconnaissance battalion, and his second-in-command, Capt Innocent
Sagahutu, were meanwhile each given 20-year sentences for crimes
against humanity.
They were accused of ordering the murder of Prime Minister Agathe
Uwilingiyimana.
Eight Belgian peacekeepers who were protecting the prime minister were
also killed, triggering the withdrawal of the UN force from Rwanda.
Rwanda's genocide was sparked by the death of former President Juvenal
Habyarimana who was killed when his plane was shot down close to the
capital, Kigali, on 6 April 1994.
Within hours of the attack, certain members of the government
organised Hutu militias across the country to systematically kill
Tutsis, resulting in more than three months of violence.
The Hutu government blamed Tutsi RPF rebels for killing Habyarimana
but RPF leader Paul Kagame, now Rwanda's president, says the plane was
shot down to provide a pretext for the premeditated slaughter.
Many thousands of lower-ranking people accused of involvement in the
genocide have been put on trial in Rwanda, either in formal courts or
in a traditional system known as "gacaca".
Tert.am
18:03 - 17.05.11
Former Rwandan army chief Augustin Bizimungu has been sentenced to 30
years in prison for his role in the 1994 genocide.
According to the BBC News, the UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda also
convicted ex-paramilitary police chief Augustin Ndindiliyimana but
released him for time already served.
Two other senior generals were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the
100-day genocide.
Bizimungu and Ndindiliyimana are two of the most senior figures to be
sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),
established in Arusha in neighbouring Tanzania to try the ringleaders
behind the killings.
"It is a welcome decision by the ICTR. In its own circumstances, that
is a big sentence, even if many people would think he [Bizimungu]
deserved the highest," Martin Ngoga, Rwanda's chief prosecutor, told
Reuters news agency.
The court ruled that Bizimungu, who was arrested in Angola in 2002,
had complete control over the men he commanded in 1994, AFP news
agency said.
Ndindiliyimana, however, was said to have only had "limited control"
over his forces and was described as being opposed to the killing.
Having already spent 11 years in jail following his arrest in Belgium
in 2000, Ndindiliyimana was released.
Both men were found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Bizimungu appeared unmoved when he was handed his sentence. The
59-year-old was accused of going to the homes of militants and
ordering them to kill all those from the Tutsi ethnic group - people
he referred to as cockroaches.
He was said to have promised weapons, as well as fuel to burn houses.
Major Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, the former commander of a
reconnaissance battalion, and his second-in-command, Capt Innocent
Sagahutu, were meanwhile each given 20-year sentences for crimes
against humanity.
They were accused of ordering the murder of Prime Minister Agathe
Uwilingiyimana.
Eight Belgian peacekeepers who were protecting the prime minister were
also killed, triggering the withdrawal of the UN force from Rwanda.
Rwanda's genocide was sparked by the death of former President Juvenal
Habyarimana who was killed when his plane was shot down close to the
capital, Kigali, on 6 April 1994.
Within hours of the attack, certain members of the government
organised Hutu militias across the country to systematically kill
Tutsis, resulting in more than three months of violence.
The Hutu government blamed Tutsi RPF rebels for killing Habyarimana
but RPF leader Paul Kagame, now Rwanda's president, says the plane was
shot down to provide a pretext for the premeditated slaughter.
Many thousands of lower-ranking people accused of involvement in the
genocide have been put on trial in Rwanda, either in formal courts or
in a traditional system known as "gacaca".
Tert.am