Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
7 December 2007
Arusha — The UN Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Friday sentenced former prefect of Kigali-Rural Mr. François Karera, 68, to life in prison for Genocide but cleared him of complicity to commit Genocide, which was an alternative count, RNA reports.
The court found him guilty on three of the four counts of Genocide and crimes against based on his participation in the killing of Tutsis in April 1994.
Prosecutors maintained during the trail that begun in January last year that Mr. Karera - as used his authority to plan and actually conduct the actual killings. In sentencing him, presiding Judge Erik Møse ruled that court took into account in particular his position of authority and the number of victims who were killed at Ntarama Church - a killing field where 5000 were massacred.
"The Tutsi are originally bad," Mr. Karera told the New York Times in August 1994 in Zaire (DRC). "They are murderers. The Tutsi have given the white people their daughters. Physically they are weak -- look at their arms and their legs. No Tutsi can build; they are too weak. They just command. The others work."
In April and May 1994, Tutsis were also killed in Rushashi commune in Kigali-Rural prefecture and in Nyamirambo sector in Nyarugenge commune, Kigali-Ville prefecture, mainly at roadblocks. François Karera ordered or instigated these acts, which according to court, leaves him responsible for Genocide, extermination and murder.
The former bureaucrat is on record as saying - after fleeing to camps in DRC (then Zaire) that there is 'no way (back) home (in Rwanda)', until the new Government set up by the Rwandan Patriotic Front shares power on the basis of population. This was to mean that since the Hutu were majority - as it had been established over decades - they were to be the biggest political player.
"That's democracy," the August 15 1994 New York Times article quotes him to have said. His goal could be achieved by negotiation, he said, but if it is not, the refugees will return by force with the backing of the overthrown Government's army -some who still roam the jungles of DRC to date.
"If the reasons are just, the massacres are justified," Mr. Karera apparently said emphatically, pushing his arm in the air to make the point. "In war you don't consider the consequences, you consider the causes." For this reason, he said, he is not worried that the United Nations is establishing tribunals to investigate the massacres and try suspects.
"We cannot use that word Genocide, because there are numerous surviving," Mr. Karera said. "They are using the word Genocide considering the number of Tutsis who were killed."
Mr. Karera was arrested in Kenya on October 20 2001. He has been represented by Carmelle Marchessault and Steven Kelliher - both from Canada.
The Chamber heard 18 Prosecution witnesses and 25 from the Defence, including Karera, over 33 trial days.
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