A horrifying genocide was committed in Rwanda on a scale not seen since WW2, and it seems some leading Christian clergy man played a leading role in this. It's good to see such people are now being brought to justice.
Pastor who led Tutsis to slaughter is jailed
A Rwandan Seventh Day Adventist pastor and his son who had a church roof removed to expose Tutsi refugees to Hutu attackers were convicted of genocide by the UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda yesterday. Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, 78, and his son Gerard, 45, a doctor, were found guilty of herding families into the church and summoning the Hutu milita to butcher them. It was one of the more notorious of the 1994 bloodbath's massacres. The two men were convicted of genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity for aiding the slaughter at the Seventh Day Adventist compund in Kibuye. Ntakirutimana, president of the Seventh Day Adventists' west Rwanda area, was one of the many clerics accused of complicity in the genocide, and the first to be convicted by the tribunal. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and his son was given 25 years. They pleaded not guilty and they will appeal, one of their lawyers said.
The tribunal, which sits in Arusha in Tanzania, found that the pastor ferried armed Hutus to points around the church and ordered the roof removed to help them get in access and eliminate hiding spaces. Human rights groups say that only 1,000 of the 50,000 Tutsis who lived near Ntakirutimana's church survived. The build-up to the killing and the victims' foreknowledge of it was captured in a letter the prosecution said was sent to Ntakirutimana by a group of Adventist pastors. "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families," it said. The line was used by the American writer Philip Gourevitch as the title of a book about the genocide. The pastors who wrote it were proved correct, said the prosecution, because Ntakirutimana made no effort to stop the killing, allegedly replying to the letter: "There is nothing I can do for you. All you can do is prepare to die, for your time has come." The father and son were also found to have helped turn a hospital compound into a killing zone.
The slaughter was a carefully planned effort by Hutus to exterminate the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus. In three months up to a million are said to have died, many of them chopped and bludgeoned and burned. The pastor fled to the US and was arrested in Texas in 1996. After making a failed effort to block extradition he arrived at the tribunal in 2000. "Pastor Ntakirutimana distanced himself from his Tutsi pastors and flock in their hour of need," said one of the presiding judges, Eric Mose, from Norway. "As a medical doctor [Gerard] took lives instead of saving them." The pastor's sentence was lighter because the judges took into account his previous good character and his frail health. Amnesty International welcomed the convictions as a major step forward for justice and urged the tribunal to speed up the trials of defendants who have been in custody for several years. "It is essential that the trials are seen to be independent and establish the principle of accountability for all past and ongoing human rights abuses in Rwanda, including those perpetrated or ordered by combatants, officials and supporters of the current government," it said. Among the crimes attributed to Gerard Ntakirutimana, who was arrested in Ivory Coast in 1996, was the murder Charles Ukobizaba, a Tutsi accountant, in the courtyard of the hospital. Ramsey Cark, a former US attorney general, who lead the defence of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, said the unanimous verdicts were a travesty of justice and that there would be an appeal.
Pastor who led Tutsis to slaughter is jailed
A Rwandan Seventh Day Adventist pastor and his son who had a church roof removed to expose Tutsi refugees to Hutu attackers were convicted of genocide by the UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda yesterday. Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, 78, and his son Gerard, 45, a doctor, were found guilty of herding families into the church and summoning the Hutu milita to butcher them. It was one of the more notorious of the 1994 bloodbath's massacres. The two men were convicted of genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity for aiding the slaughter at the Seventh Day Adventist compund in Kibuye. Ntakirutimana, president of the Seventh Day Adventists' west Rwanda area, was one of the many clerics accused of complicity in the genocide, and the first to be convicted by the tribunal. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and his son was given 25 years. They pleaded not guilty and they will appeal, one of their lawyers said.
The tribunal, which sits in Arusha in Tanzania, found that the pastor ferried armed Hutus to points around the church and ordered the roof removed to help them get in access and eliminate hiding spaces. Human rights groups say that only 1,000 of the 50,000 Tutsis who lived near Ntakirutimana's church survived. The build-up to the killing and the victims' foreknowledge of it was captured in a letter the prosecution said was sent to Ntakirutimana by a group of Adventist pastors. "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families," it said. The line was used by the American writer Philip Gourevitch as the title of a book about the genocide. The pastors who wrote it were proved correct, said the prosecution, because Ntakirutimana made no effort to stop the killing, allegedly replying to the letter: "There is nothing I can do for you. All you can do is prepare to die, for your time has come." The father and son were also found to have helped turn a hospital compound into a killing zone.
The slaughter was a carefully planned effort by Hutus to exterminate the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus. In three months up to a million are said to have died, many of them chopped and bludgeoned and burned. The pastor fled to the US and was arrested in Texas in 1996. After making a failed effort to block extradition he arrived at the tribunal in 2000. "Pastor Ntakirutimana distanced himself from his Tutsi pastors and flock in their hour of need," said one of the presiding judges, Eric Mose, from Norway. "As a medical doctor [Gerard] took lives instead of saving them." The pastor's sentence was lighter because the judges took into account his previous good character and his frail health. Amnesty International welcomed the convictions as a major step forward for justice and urged the tribunal to speed up the trials of defendants who have been in custody for several years. "It is essential that the trials are seen to be independent and establish the principle of accountability for all past and ongoing human rights abuses in Rwanda, including those perpetrated or ordered by combatants, officials and supporters of the current government," it said. Among the crimes attributed to Gerard Ntakirutimana, who was arrested in Ivory Coast in 1996, was the murder Charles Ukobizaba, a Tutsi accountant, in the courtyard of the hospital. Ramsey Cark, a former US attorney general, who lead the defence of Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, said the unanimous verdicts were a travesty of justice and that there would be an appeal.
Comment