SUNDAY, June 26, 2011
Former Rwanda minister has been sentenced to life in prison on Saturday by judges at the United Nation. Pauline Nyiramashuhuko becomes the first woman to be charged with genocide and incitement to rape by an international court. Her son Arsene Shalom Ntahobali is co-accused and sentenced to life too. United States has welcomed the conviction.
Nyiramasuhuko, 65, has been found guilty on 7 genocide charges out of eleven by International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda of atrocities. She was the minister for women's empowerment in Rwanda then.
The International court found that Nyiramasuhuko and Arsene had helped in abducting hundreds of ethnic Tutsis who were raped, assaulted and killed in the southern region of Butare. During the 100-day genocide, about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered between April and June 1994 with the help of extremist Hutu militia called Interahamwe.
Nyiramasuhuko was born in southern Rwanda into a modest family. She enrolled at university at 40 and gained a law degree. She was appointed as the minister for women's advancement in 1992. After the 1994 killing and victory of Rwandan Patriotic Front she fled to Congo. In 1997 she was arrested in Kenya and was transferred to the ICTR. In 2001 she appeared at the tribunal and the trial became the longest running at the ICTR. Sixteen years after the verdict comes.
Rwandan Tutsis Killing Photos
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| UN Zambian soldier looks at the dead bodies of refugees killed in southeastern Rawanda |
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| Skulls of killed Tutsis |
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| A worker lays remains of the victims in Kigali, Rwanda |
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| Skulls of victims during Rwanda 1994 genocide |
Rwandan Genocide Verdict Video
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