The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has found Tharcisse Renzaho, former prefect of Kigali-Ville and Colonel of the Rwandan Armed Forces, guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the 1994 genocide of approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda; he was acquitted of complicity to commit genocide. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.
Renzaho was found guilty based on his support of the killing of civilians at roadblocks, the distribution of weapons, and his involvement in the murder of more than 100 Tutsis at the Sainte Famille Church, where refugees’ names were read from a list and the victims subsequently shot in the church’s garden. He was also found criminally liable for rapes that occurred as a result of his remarks encouraging sexual violence against Tutsi women.
Detained at the court’s seat in Arusha, Tanzania since 2002, Renzaho’s trial was presented from January to September 2007. With closing arguments in early 2008 the Trial Chamber cited its involvement in three other cases as the reason for the judgment’s rather extended delay.
Renzaho’s judgment is part of a quickening of the pace in the last few months as the tribunal, originally slated for closure at the end of 2008, attempts to wrap up the remaining 28 cases still on its docket. However, with certain trials having dragged on for years, and the nagging problem of the ad hoc tribunal’s difficulties retaining personnel at this stage, it’s almost certain that the court will again overrun its already extended mandate.
