Rwandan Officer Gets 25 Years For Mass Killings

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The New York Sun

ARUSHA, Tanzania — A U.N. tribunal yesterday convicted a former Rwandan military commander of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1994 genocide and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Lieutenant Colonel Tharcisse Muvunyi’s troops were behind the “systematic killing” of at least 140 students and Red Cross workers, Judge Asoka de Silva told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

“We have no reason to doubt that Muvunyi had no knowledge of these killings,” the judge said. He added that Muvunyi incited hatred and oversaw roadblocks set up by his troops where Tutsis were separated from Hutus before being executed. An estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the genocide.

Muvunyi, whose six years in detention while awaiting trial will be counted against his sentence, showed no emotion as the sentence was read.

Muvunyi was chief of military operations in Butare province at the height of the genocide. Some 100,000 people were killed in Butare alone during the 100-day slaughter, chief prosecutor Hassan Jallow had told the court.


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