Life sentence for organiser of Rwandan genocide

A former army colonel accused of masterminding Rwanda's genocide in 1994 has been jailed for life. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had accused Theoneste Bagosora, 67, of being in charge of government troops and the Interahamwe Hutu militia who butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days. "Colonel Bagosora is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes," the court said. Prosecutors at the court in Arusha, Tanzania, said Bagosora, then cabinet director in the Defence Ministry, assumed control of military and political affairs in the central African country when President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down. Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who was head of United Nations peacekeepers during the genocide, described Bagosora as the "kingpin" behind the genocide and said the colonel had threatened to kill him with a pistol. In its indictment, the ICTR said that before the killings, Bagosora stormed out of peace talks in Tanzania saying he was returning to Rwanda to "prepare the apocalypse". After the genocide, Bagosora fled into exile in Cameroon. He was arrested there in 1996 and flown to face trial in 1997. His trial began in 2002 and lasted five years until mid-2007. Bagosora faced 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Fellow former officers Anatole Nsengiyumva and Aloys Ntabakuze were also sentenced to life, although Gratien Kabiligi was acquitted of all charges. The court also sentenced businessman and Habyarimana's brother-in-law Protais Zigiranyirazo, known as "Monsieur Z", to 20 years in prison for genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.

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ITN | December 18, 2008

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