A U.N. tribunal finds Theoneste Bagosora guilty in the deaths of former Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and others in the nation’s 1994 mass killings.
By Edmund Sanders
December 19, 2008
Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya – The ringleader of the 1994 Rwanda genocide was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for his role in the early days of an ethnic slaughter that eventually killed an estimated 800,000 people.
Theoneste Bagosora, 67, is the highest-ranking military officer convicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The former colonel’s prosecution is viewed as a significant step in efforts to punish war crimes.
“This victory sends a message to people like the warlords in Darfur or those committing horrendous rapes and killings in Congo,” said Barbara Mulvaney, a Southern California lawyer who served as chief prosecutor. “Every time one of these guys goes down, the message is: Sooner or later you are going to be held accountable.”
Judges found Bagosora, as cabinet director of the Defense Ministry, culpable in the deaths of former Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, four opposition leaders and 10 Belgian peacekeepers, all killed in the early hours of the genocide. He was also convicted of overseeing four days of deadly rampages across the country.
But judges rejected allegations that Bagosora and others had plotted as early as 1990 to prepare for the genocide. Tribunal officials had charged Bagosora with “conspiracy to commit genocide,” hoping a conviction on the charge would refute those who still denied genocide had occurred and who claimed the violence was a spontaneous eruption of ethnic hostility. read more…
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The Associated Press
