30 Years isn't nearly enough punishment (Rwanda R)

Guzzo

I hope she finds herself in a prison full of Tutsishttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_re_af/rwanda_genocide Catholic nun gets 30 years for Rwanda genocide By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 10, 10:43 AM ET NAIROBI, Kenya - A Catholic nun has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping militias kill hundreds of people hiding in a hospital during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, an official said Friday. Theophister Mukakibibi was sentenced by a traditional gacaca court for helping Hutu militiamen to kill ethnic Tutsis seeking refuge from the slaughter in Butare hospital, where she worked."She was responsible for selecting Tutsis and would throw them out of the hospital and the militia would then kill them," said Jean Baptiste Ndahumba, president of the local gacaca court in Butare town. "This nun was organizing people to be killed." She was jailed Thursday.She would also hold regular meetings with Hutu extremist groups and denied food to Tutsis hiding in the hospital, he said by telephone. About 20 people testified against her, he added.In the massacre, 100,000 people were killed in the southeastern prefecture of Butare.A number of Hutu Catholic and Protestant church leaders are alleged to have played significant roles in the east African nation's 100-day massacre. More than a half-million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by the militia, orchestrated by the extremist Hutu government then in power. The genocide ended when Tutsi rebels toppled the government.The gacaca courts are intended to speed up the genocide trials and are separate from the conventional judicial system. With nine judges from the local community, the traditional courts were also established to help heal divisions but can impose life sentences.Some 63,000 genocide suspects are detained in Rwanda, and justice authorities say that at least 761,000 people should stand trial for their role in the slaughter and chaos that came with it. The suspects represent 9.2 percent of Rwanda's estimated 8.2 million people.A U.N. tribunal based in neighboring Tanzania is trying those accused of masterminding the genocide in Rwanda. Three members of the clergy have appeared at the tribunal.In 2001, two Rwandan Catholic nuns were convicted by a Belgian court for aiding and abetting the mass murders. A Roman Catholic priest is on trial before the Tanzania-based U.N. tribunal, accused of ordering the slaughter of 2,000 people who sought refuge in his church.Rwanda's genocide began hours after a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was mysteriously shot down as it approached the capital, Kigali, on the evening of April 6, 1994. The leader was returning from power-sharing talks with Tutsi-led rebels.The genocide ended after rebels, led by current President Paul Kagame, ousted the extremist Hutu government that had orchestrated the slaughter.

faux_rillz

It's really not your business.

It seems lenient to me, too, but if a tribunal drawn from the Rwandan people concludes that not throwing away the key on her fosters the process of reconciliation, I don't think it's really for you or me to question it.

Guzzo

It's really not your business.

what the hell is this about?

is having an opinion about a lady who helped contribute to the systematic death of a people really something that I should ask others about before I say I think she deserves worse?

theory9

War tribunals such as Rwanda and Serbia/Croatia have traditionally been lenient (by Western standards) as a means of promoting healing and forgetfullness among disparate groups. We did the same thing after WWII for German and Japanese scientists, and ignored the flight of Nazis into South America.

rootlesscosmo

Right so what are you saying? Because this is not an international tribunal. This is the verdict of a local court, not the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, whcih handles only the biggest alleged perps.

theory9

I was pretty sure this tribunal was conducted under the close supervision of the UN.

rootlesscosmo

Well, I worked for a time at the ICTR appeals chamber in the Hague. And the gacaca courts are encouraged by the UN, while not necessarily supervised by them. The Yugoslav court actually "extradites" defendants back to their home countries in order to lighten the docket, and as such those courts must conform to certain standards (no death peanlty, etc.) Many of those tried in gacaca on the other hand, were never indicted by the ICTR, and so gacaca is not subject to the same requirements.