Rwandan convicted of killing Belgian peacekeepersWed Jul 4, 2007 12:17PM EDT
By Julien Ponthus
BRUSSELS, July 4 (Reuters) - A Belgian court found a former
Rwandan army major guilty on Wednesday of murdering 10
Belgian peacekeepers in the early days of the African republic's
1994 genocide.
However, the jury acquitted Bernard Ntuyahaga of the murder
of then Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana.
The Belgians U.N. soldiers were killed a day after the Rwandan
president's plane was shot down on April 6, 1994, triggering
the genocide in which Hutu-led government forces and ethnic
militias killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Prosecutors said Ntuyahaga took the peacekeepers from the
residence of the prime minister, whom they were trying to
protect, and handed them over to fellow soldiers in a military
camp in the capital, Kigali, where they were beaten to death,
shot or slain with machetes.
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