ICTR raises Ndahimana sentence to 25 years

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has increased Grégoire Ndahimana’s jail term to 25 years for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. A lower court had initially handed the convict 15 years. Ndahimana appealed the sentence, but could now wish he had served the original term in silence after yesterday’s ruling.During the Genocide, Ndahimana, 60, was mayor of Kivumu, in the then Kibuye prefecture. He was charged by the UN Appeals Court for his increased responsibility during the ethnic purge.Judge Theodore Meron, who led a five-man panel of judges ruled that the elevation of Ndahimana’s criminal responsibility from that of an “aider and abettor” to that of a participant in a joint criminal enterprise resulted in an increase of his overall culpability, which called for a higher sentence.The lower court had convicted Ndahimana for failing to sanction communal Police who took part in the April 15, 1994, attack on Tutsis sheltering in Nyange Catholic Church, which was situated in his area. He was also convicted for his “tacit approval” of the church’s destruction the next day.The Nyange church was razed with a bulldozer on April 16, burying alive some 2,000 Tutsis who had sought sanctuary from the killers.The driver of the bulldozer that destroyed the church, Anastase Nkinamubanzi, was sentenced in Rwanda to life imprisonment.The Appeals Chamber ruled that the Appeals Court found Ndahimana indeed had a genocidal intention and acted in the context of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at exterminating Tutsis from Kivumu commune.Ndahimana and other local leaders are said to have shared a beer, apparently, celebrating the mayhem.A survivor’s takeGenocide survivors yesterday welcomed the ICTR decision to increase Ndahimana’s sentence.“We, as families of the Genocide survivors, welcome the decision taken by the ICTR appeals chamber in the case of Ndahimana. He is one of the people who masterminded the Genocide and h is responsible for the death of thousands people in Kavumu,” said Naftar Ahishakiye, the executive secretary of Ibuka, an umbrella organisation of Genocide survivors’ associations.Justice minister and attorney general Johnston Busingye said Ndahimana went beyond the Genocide as a crime but that justice is being served.“The extreme sadism with which he presided over the pulling down of a church onto thousands of Tutsis who had fled there hoping for safety and protection put him, globally, in a rare category of evil men,” Busingye said.“That he has had his date with justice is important in itself. Whether the sentence is equal to his crimes is the province of the court and it has spoken.”Ndahimana is the third person to be convicted by the ICTR for the Nyange killings, after former parish priest Athanase Seromba and businessman Gaspard Kanyarukiga.He was arrested on August 10, 2009, in eastern DR Congo and transferred to the ICTR. His trial opened on September 6, 2010.Meanwhile, in February next year, the ICTR appeals chamber is expected to deliver its verdict in a case popularly known as “Military II,” involving Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Augustin Bizimungu, François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye and Innocent Sagahutu.They were all convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Bizimungu was jailed 30 years, while Ndindiliyimana was sentenced to the time served since his arrest on January 29, 2000. Nzuwonemeye and Sagahutu received 20 years custodial punishment each.

National

ICTR raises Ndahimana sentence to 25 years