Africa
Bagosora and two other top genocide architects get life imprisonment
KIGALI, Thursday
Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, a former Director of Cabinet in the Ministry of Defence of the Rwanda’s pre-Genocide government and two other senior officers of the Rwandan army in 1994, have been sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide crimes.
The Trial Chamber I of the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Thursday, sentenced Bagosora and two others including Major Aloys Ntabakuze, a former Commander of the Para Commando Battalion and Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, a former Commander of the Operational Sector of Gisenyi to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes based on their role in crimes committed in Rwanda.
Bagosora was considered to be the most powerful person during the events that preceded the massacre of about one million innocent Tutsis during the 1994 Genocide.
He was also linked to ‘le Clan de Madame’, known later as the ‘akazu’, a group associated with Agathe Habyarimana, the president’s wife, who was rumored to be a Hutu extremist and related to very powerful members of society.
A Bagosora joint trial opened on April 2, 2002, with three other senior military officers, including Ntabakuze, Nsengiyumva, General Gratien Kabiligi, a former Head of the Military Operations Bureau (G-3) of the army general staff, charged as co-conspirators.
Though the prosecution team led by Barbara Mulvaney of the United States alleged that Kabiligi participated in the distribution of weapons and organised meetings to plan the genocide, it was also not proven that he had operational authority or that he targeted civilians.
Kabiligi was therefore according to the judgement read at ICTR’s Chamber I, acquitted of all charges against him. The court ordered his release. It also acquitted each of the Accused of conspiring to commit genocide before 7 April 1994.
The Arusha based ICTR was established for the prosecution of persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994.
The court which is governed by is annexed to the UN Security Council Resolution 955 may also deal with the prosecution of Rwandan citizens responsible for genocide and other such violations of international law committed in the territory of neighbouring States during the same period.
According to the Bagosora judgment, in the first days after the death of former Rwandan President Juvenile Habyarimana on 6 April 1994, Bagosora was the highest authority in the Rwandan Ministry of Defence with authority over the Rwandan military.
The judgement says that, Bagosora was considered responsible for the killing, on 7 April, of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Joseph Kavaruganda, the President of the Constitutional Court, as well as Frédéric Nzamurambaho, Landoald Ndasingwa and Faustin Rucogoza, who were opposition party officials and government ministers.
“He was found guilty in connection with the killing of ten Belgian peacekeepers who were killed by soldiers at Camp Kigali on 7 April. Bagosora was also responsible for the organised killings perpetrated by soldiers and militiamen at a number of sites throughout Kigali and Gisenyi between 6 and 9 April,” says a summary of the statement.
Bagosora first appeared before the ICTR to face thirteen counts of eleven different international crimes, based on the laws of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
During his trial further evidence was submitted that in 1991 he and his three other co-accused helped to draft a document where they referred to the Tutsi ethnic group as the "principal enemy" which was widely distributed in the army. They were also accused of supporting the media outlets responsible for spreading hate messages and making lists of victims.
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