Rwandan genocide minister jailed for 30 years

A former Rwandan government minister who tricked thousands of refugees into being slaughtered was jailed for 30 years today.

The UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which sits in Tanzania, convicted Callixte Kalimanzira, 56, of two counts of genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide.

“He encouraged Tutsi refugees to gather at Kabuye Hill, where he knew they will be killed in the thousands. He abused the public’s trust that he ... would protect them,” said the presiding judge, Dennis Byron.

The crime occurred when Kalimanzira was serving as Rwanda’s acting interior minister.

The 1994 genocide was led by members of Rwanda’s former army and extremist Hutu militias, known as the Interahamwe.

The victims were members of the Tutsi minority and politically moderate Hutus. The killings ended when Tutsi-led rebels, under President Paul Kagame, ousted the extremist government in July 1994.

The ICTR has delivered judgements on 38 people. Six were acquittals.