A UN COURT trying masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide yesterday jailed a former interior minister for 30 years for tricking thousands of people into hiding on a hill, where they were killed.
Hutu militias butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in the 100-day massacre that shocked Africa and the world.
The Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said Callixte Kalimanzira, a close ally to the
president and prime minister during the killing spree, was guilty of genocide.
"The trial chamber … found Kalimanzira guilty of genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide," the tribunal said.
In its 2005 indictment, the tribunal accused Kalimanzira of encouraging thousands of Tutsi civilians to take refuge at Kabuye hill in Ndora commune with promises of food and protection, only for militias then to kill them in his presence.
He was also accused of seeking military and police reinforcements for the massacre.
"Kalimanzira went to Kabuye hill … with soldiers and policemen, where thousands of Tutsi refugees were attacked and killed," the tribunal said.
"Most significantly, by encouraging Tutsi refugees to gather at Kabuye hill where he knew they would be killed in the thousands, he abused the public's trust that he, like other officials, would protect them."
Kalimanzira, 56, had pled not guilty. His sentencing raises the number of tribunal judgments to 38, six of them acquittals.
