Former Rwandan Minister Guilty Of Genocide

UN-Backed Tribunal Gives Rwandan Ex-Minister Found Guilty Of Genocide 30 Years

New York, Jun 22 2009 2:10PM The United Nations tribunal set up to deal with the mass killings that engulfed Rwanda in 1994 has found a former Government minister guilty of genocide and sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

April 1994 saw the beginning of a slaughter in the tiny East African country in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates died, mostly by machete, during a period of less than 100 days.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) today said that on 23 April 1994, Callixte Kalimanzira, former Acting Minister of Interior, lured thousands of Tutsi refugees to Kabuye hill in Butare prefecture, where they were attacked and killed.

The Tribunal’s Trial Chamber found that Mr. Kalimanzira substantially contributed to the overall attack, finding him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt that he aided and abetted genocide at Kabuye hill.

Further, it said that the defendant was guilty of direct and public incitement to commit genocide on several occasions, including at the Nyabisagara football field, in April 1994.

Mr. Kalimanzira, the ICTR said, used his prominent status in Butare as well as his position in the Interior Ministry to get others to follow his example.

“Most significantly by encouraging Tutsi refugees to gather at Kabuye hill where he knew they would be killed in the thousands, he abused the public’s trust that he, like other officials, would protect them,” the Tribunal said in a press release.

The former official surrendered voluntarily to the Arusha, Tanzania-based ICTR in November 2005 and his trial began last May.

ENDS

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