Rwandans Jailed For War Crimes

A Belgian jury sentenced four Rwandans, including two Roman Catholic nuns, to prison terms ranging from 12 to 20 years Friday after convicting them of homicide in the 1994 massacres in their African homeland.

Benedictine nun Sister Gertrude received a 15-year sentence for her role in the massacre of some 7,000 people seeking refuge at her convent in southern Rwanda. Another nun, Sister Maria Kisito, received a 12-year sentence.

Alphonse Higaniro, a businessman, received a 20-year sentence, and university professor Vincent Ntezimana was ordered jailed for 12 years.

The prosecution had sought life sentences for all four.

Ntezimana sobbed and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief as the sentences were imposed. The others showed no emotion.

The rulings concluded a landmark trial hailed as by human rights campaigners as precedent for legal action against suspected war criminals wherever they may hide. The trial was the first in which a jury of citizens from one country judged defendants for war crimes committed in another country.

Earlier Friday, the jury returned with its verdicts after 11 hours of deliberation. The two nuns were found guilty of all the counts of homicide against them stemming from several days of slaughter at their convent at Sovu, in southern Rwanda.

The two men were accused of helping plan and carry out killing of members of Rwanda's Tutsi minority during the 13-week genocide in 1994.

More than 500,000 people were killed in 100 days of killing organized by the former Hutu government of Rwanda. Tutsi-led rebels stopped the genocide in July 1994 when they seized control of the country.

The two nuns, dressed in beige-and-brown habits, showed no emotion as the court clerk confirmed the verdict. All four defendants stood motionless, eyes fixed on the bench.

Then the 12-member jury - which included a hairdresser, a truck driver, a university teacher and a journalist - heard arguments for sentencing.

"You will hear calls for clemency from the defense team," chief prosecutor Alain Winants told the jury. "I ask you, 'Did the victims receive any gestures of clemency or pity'? No, none at all."

Defense lawyers countered that heavy sentences would harm efforts to heal the still open wounds between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda.

"A life sentence would be the negation of any hope of reconciliation," defense attorney Serge Wahlis said.

In their final comments to the jury, the two male defendants said only that they accepted the verdict. Sister Gertrude said she had nothing to add, but Sister Maria Kisito repeated that the charges against her were "a lie."

The trial was held under a 1993 Belgian law that gives local courts jurisdiction over violations of the Geneva Convention on war crimes, no matter where they occurred.

"This is a big step forward for international justice. It shows that such a trial can be organized, that you can have a fair trial for events that happen on the other side o the world," said Reed Brody, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch.

"The idea that justice has no border has received a big boost here."

The judgments were met with anger by a group of Hutu youths among the many Rwandans in the packed public gallery. Relatives of genocide victims hugged and wept quietly.

"They have given a human face to people that were killed like animals," said Marguerite Lens-Nyirajhninka, who said she had lost all of her family in the Rwandan genocide. "Today, we can feel our humanity has been recognized."

Prosecutors claimed the two nuns helped the Hutu mob that repeatedly attacked Tutsis seeking shelter at the Sovu convent in the green hills of southern Rwanda.

Witnesses told the court the two nuns called in militias to clear the Tutsis from the convent grounds. They were accused of supplying gasoline to the mob that burned some 500 people to death as they cowered in the convent's garage, and of guiding the killers to the hiding places of doomed Tutsi men, women and children.

Defense lawyers said the women were innocent bystanders, unable to halt the slaughter. The two male defendants also denied the charges. Immediately after the verdict, defense attorneys said it was too early to say if they would appeal.

Ntezimana and Higaniro were accused of being Hutu extremists who virulently opposed proposals to share power with Tutsi rebels and responded by helping plan and carry out the genocide in their southern region.

The four fled to Belgium - Rwanda's former colonial ruler - after the rebels took control of the country in July 1994 and put an end to the killings of Tutsis.

By Paul Ames
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