DATE=1/27/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RWANDA WAR CRIMES (L)
NUMBER=2-258478
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A U-N court has sentenced a former Rwandan
factory director to life in prison for his part in the
country's 1994 genocide. As Correspondent Scott
Stearns reports, he is the first private citizen
convicted for organizing the ethnic violence.
TEXT: Alfred Musema was found guilty of genocide and
crimes against humanity in the deaths of ethnic Tutsi
at a tea factory in western Rwanda.
Many of those murdered in the town of Gisovu were
Musema's employees. He used tea factory vehicles to
transport killers to a hillside where thousands of
Tutsi were trying to escape the violence. Prosecutors
say the 50-year-old later tried to persuade French
intervention forces to leave the area so the remaining
Tutsi could be killed.
Swedish Judge Lennart Aspegren ruled that Musema -
knowingly and consciously participated in the
commission of crimes, and never showed remorse for his
personal role in the commission of the atrocities.
The U-N tribunal found Musema guilty on three of the
nine charges against him, including rape. Other
defendants have been charged with ordering rape,
Musema is the first to be convicted for actively
taking part in sexual assault.
Last September, the tribunal ruled that rape and
sexual violence were tools of the Rwandan genocide in
which the army and ruling party militia killed more
than 800-thousand Tutsi and politically moderate
ethnic Hutu.
The U-N tribunal was established to try those
responsible. Musema's conviction is its seventh
judgment and fifth life sentence. Musema is the first
conviction against someone who was not part of the
army or government at the time.
Musema was arrested in Switzerland in 1995 after
Rwandan refugees accused him of orchestrating the
violence. He was acquitted of charges of war crimes
after the court ruled prosecutors had failed to prove
a link between his criminal acts and the civil war
that raged in 1994.
Defense counsel Stephen Kay argued that Musema was not
in the area at the time of the murders. Mr. Kay also
tried to discredit witnesses who he called unreliable.
The defense attorney plans to appeal the conviction.
Life in prison is the maximum sentence Musema could
receive if his appeal is unsuccessful. Unlike
Rwanda's own genocide tribunal, the United Nations can
not sentence defendants to death. (SIGNED)
NEB/SS/GE/RAE
27-Jan-2000 07:53 AM EDT (27-Jan-2000 1253 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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