Fri Sep 30, 2011 11:47PM GMT
Reddit
More than 800,000 people were killed in the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Pictured above is a shrine dedicated to the victims of the genocide.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced two former ministers to 30 years in prison for involvement in the genocide of 1994.
In the ICTR rulings issued on Friday, former public service minister Prosper Mugiraneza and former trade minister Justin Mugenzi were convicted of complicity to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide, AFP reported.
However, the UN war crimes tribunal, which is based in Arusha, Tanzania, acquitted former health minister Casimir Bizimungu and former foreign affairs minister Jerome-Clement Bicamumpaka, citing a lack of evidence.
The Rwandan genocide began after the plane of the country's Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down in 1994 and Hutus were incited to commit acts of ethnic violence against Tutsis. Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was also killed in the plane crash.
All of the details of the double assassination have never come out and investigations continue to this day.
The tribunal was formed later in 1994 to try the alleged perpetrators of the genocide, in which about 800,000 to one million people, mainly Tutsis, were killed.
The Rwandan genocide lasted approximately 100 days and hence is called the “100 Days of Hell.”
The four ex-ministers, who denied the charges, were accused of calling for the massacre of Tutsis during several meetings they held across Rwanda and in public speeches, some of which were aired on radio.
Bizimungu was arrested in Kenya in February 1999, while the other three were all arrested in Cameroon in April 1999.
HSN/HGL
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