Rwanda Trials: Woman First Ever to be Convicted of Genocide
A woman has become the first female in history to be convicted of genocide, as a U.N. court sentenced a former Rwanda minister to a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape, Friday.
Rwanda's former minister for family and women affairs, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, and her son are just two among a number of suspects being tried by a special U.N. genocide court.
The prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused her of taking part in decisions to create militias throughout the country, and commissioning them to wipe out the Tutsi population as fast as possible.
Nyiramasuhuko was found to have helped abduct hundreds of ethnic Tutsis who were assaulted, raped and killed in the southern region of Butare.
It is thought about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during Rwanda’s horrific genocide. Over the course of about three months Nyiramasuhuko and her son, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, are said to have used extremist Hutu militia Interahamwen to abduct hundreds.
Judgment William Sekule described: “Many were physically assaulted, raped and taken away to various places in Butare, where they were killed.
“During the course of these repeated attacks on vulnerable civilians, both Nyiramasuhuko and Ntahobali ordered killings. They also ordered rapes. Ntahobali further committed rapes and Nyiramasuhuko aided and abetted rapes.”
The prosecution claimed that along with her son, she often forced people to undress before transporting them in trucks to their deaths.
Once the genocide was over she fled to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo before being arrested in Kenya in 1997.
It has been 10 years since trials at the ICTR began on June 12, 2001; making these the longest proceedings ever held by the ICTR.
Over the course of the proceedings more than 150 witnesses were used.
