KIGALI - The mother to Presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire was sentenced to life imprisonment for her role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi by a Gacaca Court in Butamwa in the Western Province.

According to Gacaca officials, Theresa Dusabe, Ingabire’s biological mother, was sentenced in absentia twice in different cases for her role in the Genocide.

"Dusabe was sentenced to 30 years in jail by a Gacaca court for disembowelling pregnant Tutsi women and removing the foetuses which she would smash to death in a horrendous manner,” Domitilla Mukantaganzwa, Executive Secretary of Gacaca jurisdictions told The New Times.

She added that in a separate trial, Dusabe was jointly sentenced to life alongside one Sebastian Muhizina, for their role in masterminding the Genocide by calling for meetings and sensitizing the Interahamwe militias to kill Tutsis.

Muhizina is currently serving his sentence in Kigali Central Prison and has been one of the many key witnesses against Dusabe.

Victoire Ingabire’s mother is said to have fled the country immediate after the Genocide and went to Zaire (now DRC) from where she managed to find her way to Europe, allegedly with the assistance of her daughter.

Ingabire’s mother was a medical practitioner during the Genocide working with Butamwa Health Centre.

Pundits have closely linked Ingabire’s criticism of the Gacaca courts to the fact that her own mother is a convict wanted by the very courts.

"She is of course a bitter lady who knows well that her own mother is not clean. That’s why she has no moral authority to criticise gacaca which incidentally has been (Gacaca) given a clean bill of health by renown scholars,” Evelyn Uwantege, a survivor of Genocide told The New Times.

She has on several occasions vowed to close down all Gacaca courts once she gets into power.

A United Nations Group of Experts report issued last year, gathered substantial evidence on existing collaboration between FDLR rebels and FDU-Inkingi.

Though the controversial presidential hopeful denies the claims, the UN report singles her out in November 23, 2009 as one the key collaborators of the rebel outfit.

The authors of the report called for international action on individuals and organisations behind FDLR, a rebel movement categorised as a terrorist group by the US government.

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