UN tribunal jails former Rwandan mayor for 30 years for genocide

The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the 1994 Rwandan genocide today sentenced a former Rwandan mayor – responsible for a notorious massacre inside a church where thousands of Tutsis had been seeking shelter – to 30 years in jail after convicting him of charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Three judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), sitting in Arusha, Tanzania, unanimously convicted Sylvestre Gacumbitsi, the former bourgmestre of Rusumo commune in Rwanda’s southeast, for his role in the genocide there in April 1994. Mr. Gacumbitsi had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The judges found that, between 7 and 14 April, Mr. Gacumbitsi – who was a member of the ruling Hutu political party – held meetings with military leaders and members of the Interahamwe militias, distributed weapons to these groups and organized meetings during which he incited participants to kill Tutsis.

Presiding Judge Andresia Vaz of Senegal, Jai Jam Reddy of Fiji and Sergei Alekseevich Egorov of the Russian Federation found Mr. Gacumbitsi responsible for the massacre of as many as 20,000 Tutsis who took shelter in Nyarubuye church.

On 15 April Mr. Gacumbitsi killed a Tutsi at the church and gave the signal for people to begin killing others. He also ordered his subordinates and police officers to participate. On 16 and 17 April, Mr. Gacumbitsi took part in further attacks against any survivors in the same church.

By convicting Mr. Gacumbitsi of genocide, the ICTR rejected an alternative charge of complicity in genocide. The judges also dismissed a charge of murder as a crime against humanity because of a lack of proof.