Court convicts 18 of genocide crimes

A Rwandan court has found 18 people guilty of genocide crimes committed in the country in 1994 and sentenced them to serve various terms in prison.

They were convicted for having taken part in the killing of an estimated 20,000 civilians at the Nyarubuye Roman Catholic Church in the province of Kibungo, 140 km east of the capital, Kigali.

The trial was held at a makeshift court in the Rukira sector, neighbouring Nyarubuye.

The convicts had been accused of being among the leaders of militias and civilians who attacked Nyarubuye church on 15 April 1994, killing almost all the fleeing Tutsis and Hutu sympathisers who had sought refugee in the church.

The state prosecutor, Martin Rwisumbula, had told the court that the attackers returned to the church on 16 April 1994 to "finish off" survivors of the previous day's massacre.

A leader of the group responsible for the killings, Gitera Rwamuhizi, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to having killed 10 people. The rest were sentenced to terms ranging from seven to 16 years.

About half of the accused confessed to having participated in the Nyarubuye church attack but the outcome of the trial failed to appease some of the survivors of the attacks.

"I lost every member of my family in that church," Valerie Rugambwa, a survivor, said. "Such a decision taken by the court is mere injustice. I am not pleased at all with the outcome."

However, Rwisumbula welcomed the judgement saying that it reflected the testimonies presented before the court.

On 18 June 2002, the Rwandan government launched the Gacaca justice system - based on traditional communal courts - in a bid to expedite trials for more than 100,000 genocide suspects who are held in the country’s congested prisons.

The Gacaca tribunals merge customary practice with a western, formal court structure. Rwandan national courts and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, also conduct genocide trials.

At least 800,000 people died during the April-June 1994 genocide in Rwanda.