BELGIUM:A Belgian court sentenced a former Rwandan army major to 20 years in prison yesterday for murdering 10 Belgian peacekeepers at the start of the genocide in the African state in 1994.
However, the court acquitted Bernard Ntuyahaga (55) of murdering the Rwandan prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and killing civilians in the Butare district.
The murders of the Belgian soldiers triggered the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers, spurring on extremist Hutus to carry out genocide against the ethnic Tutsi minority.
Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt told the court in May that had Belgian troops stayed in Rwanda on the UN mission hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved.
It has been estimated that 800,000 moderate Hutus and Tutsis were massacred in just 100 days during 1994. Hutu militias and government forces took part in the killing.
Prosecutor Philippe Mere had sought a life sentence for Ntuyahaga, arguing that he had shown no remorse during the trial.
"He remains a Hutu extremist and will probably remain it for the rest of his life," Mr Mere told the court.
But the jury decided on a more lenient penalty, which presiding judge Karine Gerard said left the door open for reconciliation among Rwandans.
"This sentence is not a cause for despair," she told Ntuyahaga, who remained silent.
The Belgians were killed a day after the Rwandan president's plane was shot down on April 6th, 1994. Prosecutors said Ntuyahaga took the men from the residence of the prime minister, whom they were trying to protect, and handed them over to Hutu soldiers at a military camp, where they were beaten to death, shot or killed with machetes.
Defence attorney Luc De Temmerman said Ntuyahaga would appeal against the verdict on procedural grounds.
Belgium has been seeking justice for its murdered soldiers for 13 years. Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda dropped genocide and war crimes charges against Ntuyahaga in 1999.
After lengthy attempts to extradite him, the former officer flew to Belgium voluntarily in 2004 but the trial only began in April this year.