Augustin Bizimungu, the mastermind of mass Tutsi extermination and the Rwandan genocide in 1994, sentenced after trial to 30 years in prison.

One of the primary architects of the Rwandan genocide, former general Augustin Bizimungu has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the massacre of over 800,000 people.

Augustin Bizimungu, a former general in the Rwandan army, and Augustin Ndindiliyimana, an ex-military police chief, were found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity in a trial by the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Between April and June 1994 Hutu militia bands executed the mass slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, started with the shooting down of the President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane carrying . Bizimungu and Ndindiliyimana are two of the masterminds to be sentenced by the ICTR.

The 59 year old Augustin Bizimungu, was unmoved when the judge stated that, as army general, he had utter control over the whole militia who executed the massacres.

According to the indictment Augustin Bizimungu prepared lists of Tutsis to be eradicated, referring to them as “cockroaches”. He didn’t do anything to stop the rape and sexual abuse of women and girls.

Rwanda Genocide Augustin Bizimungu trial ended with 30 years sentence

The court this week dismissed Augustin Bizimungu’s not guilty plea and sentenced him to 30 years in jail, while it ordered the release of Ndindiliyimana because he had consistently supported reconciliation before 1994 and opposed the massacres. He had already spent 11 years in prison after he was arrested in Belgium in 2000.

In Rwanda there was a generally positive reaction to the verdicts in the Rwandan Genocide trials.

 

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