Tribunal slams life sentence on Rwandan genocide organisers

Tribunal slams life sentence on Rwandan genocide organisers

Two key organisers of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 have been sentenced to life in prison by the UN tribunal dealing with war crimes in the country.

The war resulted in the deaths of about 800,000 people in just 100 days.

The crime

A statement issued by the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR) found Edouard Karemera and Matthieu Ngirumpatse, both senior members of the ruling party in Rwanda during the genocide, guilty of genocide.

It stated that their guilt was based on direct and public incitement to commit genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity, rape and sexual assault as crimes against humanity, and killings as causing violence to health and physical or mental well-being.

Ngirumpatse was the chairman of Rwanda’s then ruling National Revolutionary Movement for Development  party (known by its French acronym, MRND) while Karemera was his deputy at the time.

ICTR delivered the judgment after finding that both men were members of a “joint criminal enterprise” to destroy the Tutsi population of Rwanda.

The Tribunal said they were consequently liable not only for their own criminal acts and omissions, but also for those committed by others within the common purpose of the enterprise.

It also ruled that they were liable for the widespread rapes and sexual assaults of Tutsi women and girls, as well as the crimes carried out by the “Interahamwe’’ militia members in the cities of Kigali and Gisenyi.

The ICTR described the crimes, committed between April and July 1994, as being “of utmost gravity’’.

They included the crimes committed by Col. Theoneste Bagosora, who had also been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The tribunal also ruled that Karemera, who was also interior minister in the interim government in 1994, bears superior responsibility for the criminal activities of the civilians who participated in the civil defence programme, and local officials who were part of the territorial administration during the genocide.

The trial chamber dismissed the count of complicity in genocide because it was pleaded as an alternative to the count of genocide.

Although it found the accused guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide, the chamber did not convict them of this count, noting that the conviction for genocide fully accounted for their criminal responsibility.

Created in December 1994, the ICTR, based in Arusha, Tanzania, tries those alleged to be responsible for crimes against humanity and other offences committed during the genocide.

To facilitate the tribunal’s ongoing work, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Wednesday extending the terms of office of the four permanent judges and eight “ad litem” judges of the tribunal until June 30, 2012 or until the completion of the trial. 

NAN/Adekusibe/Cokey