RWANDA: Military tribunal convicts priest of genocide, rape

KIGALI, 17 November 2006 (IRIN) - A military tribunal in Rwanda has found a priest, resident in France, guilty of rape and involvement in the 1994 genocide and sentenced him in absentia to life in prison.

The tribunal handed down the sentence on Wenceslas Munyeshyaka on Thursday in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

It found Munyeshyaka guilty of rape and aiding militias in the killing of hundreds of Tutsi refugees at the Holy Family Cathedral in downtown Kigali, where he was head priest.

Munyeshyaka had been jointly tried with Gen Laurent Munyakazi, leader of the army in Kigali's Nyarugenge District, where the church is located.

"Munyeshyaka and Munyakazi worked with militias to deliver hundreds of innocent children, women and men to militias to be killed," Brig-Gen Karenzi Karake, a judge of the military tribunal, told a packed courtroom.

However, the tribunal acquitted Munyakazi on rape charges but ruled that Munyeshyaka had, on several occasions, raided halls where refugees had sought shelter at the Holy Family Church complex to pick out young girls and women whom he raped in nearby buildings.

"We will once again request France to extradite Munyeshyaka to serve his sentence in Rwanda," Maj Christopher Bizimungu, the prosecutor, said.

Rwanda has accused France of hosting many genocide suspects. According to the government, 937,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed during the 1994 genocide. The United Nations in 1994 set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, based in Tanzania's northern town of Arusha, to try the suspected perpetrators of the genocide.

Besides the UN tribunal regular courts in Rwanda, the military tribunal and Gacaca courts - based on a traditional justice system - have also been prosecuting genocide cases.

gg/js/mw