A day of reckoning for Rwanda

NAIROBI, Kenya —

The ringleader of the 1994 Rwanda genocide was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for his role in the early days of an ethnic slaughter that eventually killed an estimated 800,000 people.

Theoneste Bagosora, 67, was the highest-ranking military officer convicted at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The former colonel's prosecution was viewed as a significant step in efforts to punish war crimes.

"This victory sends a message to people like the warlords in Darfur or those committing horrendous rapes and killing in Congo," said Barbara Mulvaney, a Southern California attorney who served as chief prosecutor. "Every time one of these guys goes down, the message is: Sooner or later, you are going to be held accountable."

Judges found that Bagosora, as cabinet director of the Defense Ministry, was culpable in the deaths of former Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, four opposition leaders and 10 Belgian peacekeepers.

He was also convicted of overseeing four days of deadly rampages around the country.

But judges rejected allegations that Bagosora and others plotted as early as 1990 to prepare for the genocide. Tribunal officials had charged Bagosora with "conspiracy to commit genocide," hoping a conviction on that charge would refute those who still deny genocide occurred and claim the violence was a spontaneous eruption of ethnic hostility.

The judges affirmed that genocide took place but ruled that evidence was insufficient to prove Bagosora and others conspired in the mass killings.

The 100-day massacre began in April 1994 and pitted Hutu extremists against Tutsi and Hutu moderates.

Incited by hate messages on radio and armed by government officials, ordinary Rwandans — including teachers, doctors and priests — carried out much of the killing with machetes.

Under tribunal rules, a death sentence was not an option.

Bagosora stepped up to run the country after the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose plane was shot down as it approached Kigali, the capital, on April 6, 1994.

During his defense, Bagosora denied genocide occurred and claimed he was powerless to stop the mobs.

Two other former military commanders, Lt. Col. Anatole Nsengiyumva and Maj. Aloys Ntabakuze, were sentenced Thursday to life imprisonment. A fourth defendant, Gen. Gratien Kabiligi, former head of military operations, was acquitted and released.

The verdict brought a much-needed victory to the U.N.-sponsored tribunal, which has come under fire for spending too much time and money in prosecuting crimes that occurred 14 years ago. By convicting the man many viewed as the mastermind, the tribunal has accomplished one of its chief mandates, legal experts said.

"They done a pretty decent job of bringing to justice the people behind the genocide," said Sara Darehshori, attorney at Human Rights Watch who served as a tribunal prosecutor in 1995-97.

In Rwanda, where the government has clashed with the tribunal over who should try suspects, the verdict was announced during a meeting in the capital and lawmakers remained silent.

But some genocide survivors expressed satisfaction.

"This justice is going to help the victims of the genocide recover their dignity," said Didacienne Mukahabeshimana, a Rwandan human-rights activist.

Mulvaney, who resigned after the trial phase ended last year, said she hoped that the international community would re-evaluate the process for war-crimes prosecutions.

"A lot of Rwandans feel disenfranchised from the tribunal," she said. "They think it's a bunch of academics writing about genocide but never feeling the pain of the victims. People have to be smart about how things are done in the future to make it more relevant to real people."