April 2, 2000
A Rwandan court has sentenced eight people to death and 14 to prison after finding them guilty of planning and executing the country's 1994 genocide, state-run Radio Rwanda reported Sunday. The sentences were handed down Friday, a day before Rwanda began annual commemorations for more than a half-million minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus killed during the 90-day slaughter from April to July 1994 on orders of an extremist Hutu government.
Of 28 individuals charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, six were acquitted and seven received life in prison, the radio said. Three defendants were sentenced to 20 years in prison, and two others got 15- and 11-year prison terms. The report did not say how the remaining two were sentenced. The defendants also were ordered to pay a total of $500,000 to 30 families of victims who sought compensation, the radio said. The radio said that among those sentenced to death was the mayor of Gisuma in Cyangugu Prefecture, Theoneste Rukeratabar, and a school inspector.
More than 125,000 genocide suspects are awaiting trial in Rwandan jails. Since 1996, more than 2,500 have been sentenced, 300 of them to death. The first executions took place on April 24, 1998, when 22 people were put to death publicly. There have been no executions since, although the government has not ruled them out. The massacres ended when the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front won power in July 1994, then formed the government of national unity comprising both Hutus and Tutsis.
The UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has been trying top genocide suspects separately in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha. The maximum sentence the tribunal can impose is life in prison.
