Rwanda - genocide

Government minister given 30 years

Article published on the 2009-06-22 Latest update 2009-06-22 11:49 TU

Callixte Kalimanizira, former Rwanda minister convicted of genocide
(Credit: ICTR)

Former Rwandan interior minister Callixte Kalimanzira was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Monday after he was found guilty of tricking thousands of people to hide on a hill before they were killed in the 1994 genocide. He is convicted of genocide and complicity to commit genocide by the Tanzania-based UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The court accused Kalimanzira encouraged thousands of Tutsi civilians to hide at Kabuye Hill in Ndora commune. He tempted them with promised of food and protection, but then personally sought police and military reinforcements to assist in the attack that killed thousands, according to the brief. He supervised the killings, according to the court.

He contributed to the incitement to genocide by allowing participants to make inflammatory statements to locals in the Butare prefecture and did not disapprove of their tone. It was these speeches that triggered the massacre of thousands of Tutsi in the area, according to the court indictment.

“He reduced Tutsi human beings to prey at public places such as meetings and roadblocks and incited gang members of the local population to participate in the massacre of their Tutsi neighbours," the prosecution told the court.

“Kalimanzira deserves nothing less than imprisonment for the remainder of his life,” they added.

Kalimanzira was arrested after the indictment in 2005 and gave a 'not guilty' plea. He was a close ally of President Théodore Sindikubwabo and Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, and a native of their province.

Militias butchered some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days during the Rwanda genocide that took place in 1994.