DATE=12/6/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RWANDA TRIBUNAL (L-O)
NUMBER=2-256892
BYLINE=FARAH STOCKMAN
DATELINE=ARUSHA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A former national leader of Rwanda's
Interahamwe militia has been found guilty of genocide
(Monday) at a U-N court and sentenced to life in
prison. Judges said the militia leader deserved the
maximum sentence for his role in the 1994 massacre of
one-half-million Rwandans. Farah Stockman reports
from Arusha.
TEXT: The public gallery was packed at the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as judges
announced their verdict following a two-and-one-half
year trial.
Georges Rutuganda was pronounced guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt of helping to organize an
extermination campaign against Tutsis, Rwanda's ethnic
minority. More than 500-thousand Tutsis and
politically moderate Hutus were murdered in a three-
month killing spree by Hutu extremists in 1994.
The massacres were sparked by the assassination of
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana. It is widely
believed that the Interahamwe militia spearheaded the
widespread killings.
Rutuganda was one of the five members of the National
Committee of the Interahamwe, an organization that
began as a youth group of the ruling party. In his
testimony, Rutuganda said the Interahamwe ceased to be
an organized group and that even as Vice President he
had no control over its members.
But judges ruled that during the genocide, the 41-
year-old businessman distributed weapons to
Interahamwe killers, telling them to -- get to work.
Rutuganda was also found guilty of leading an attack
against thousands hiding in a Kigali school just after
U-N peacekeepers withdrew from the area. Prosecution
witnesses said that Rutuganda was among the attackers
who separated out Hutus at the school and mowed down
the rest with automatic rifles and machetes.
The tribunal's verdict comes just one-month after
Rwandan officials suspended cooperation with the U-N
court, criticizing it for being too soft on top
suspects.
Rutuganda is the sixth person to be found guilty of
genocide at the U-N court, and the fourth to be given
a life sentence. Rutuganda may live out his years in
a prison in Zambia or Mali, U-N officials say, but for
now he will stay in the U-N prison where three-dozen
more suspects are awaiting their trial. (SIGNED)
NEB/FS/GE/RAE
06-Dec-1999 13:22 PM EDT (06-Dec-1999 1822 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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