Hutu

THE HAGUE - A Hutu man was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday for the slaying of two Tutsi mothers and at least four of their children in Rwanda's 1994 genocide . The Hague District Court acquitted Joseph Mpambara of involvement in the massacre of hundreds of other Tutsis who had sought shelter in a church. The judges said there was compelling evidence that Mpambara ordered the two Tutsi mothers and their children hauled out of an ambulance they were using to flee violence, and then killed.

A federal judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a woman accused of lying to obtain US citizenship by denying her role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Jurors had failed to reach a verdict. Beatrice Munyenyezi, 41, became a US citizen in 2003 and moved to Manchester. She faced deportation to Rwanda upon conviction. Authorities say Munyenyezi was an extremist Hutu who killed and enabled the rapes of untold Tutsi victims. Prosecution witnesses testified they saw her direct rapes and killings, but her relatives testified they never saw her do so. (AP)

ARUSHA, Tanzania -- The former peacekeeping commander during the Rwandan genocide told a UN tribunal yesterday that world leaders allowed the deaths of more than 500,000 people by feigning ignorance of what was taking place. Retired Canadian Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire told the court he could do little to stop the killing because his UN force had a limited mandate and an insufficient number of troops and weapons, and that his appeals for reinforcements were rejected. He specifically mentioned France, Belgium, and the United States "as being uncooperative . ....

INTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Rwandan Children Born of Rape At: the Adams Gallery, Sargent Hall, Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont St., through Oct. 23. 617-573-8447, www.suffolk.edu/48035.html Few people over the past three decades have experienced as many horrific scenes as the photojournalist James Nachtwey has: wars, natural disasters, crimes against humanity. Several years ago, I asked him in an interview if he could say what was the worst thing he'd seen. "Rwanda," he said.

KIGALI, Rwanda — Police arrested the country’s most prominent opposition leader yesterday and accused her of being involved in the formation of a terrorist organization, months after she was barred from challenging the president in an election. Human rights groups have accused the Rwandan government of using terrorism allegations to stifle opposition in the country, where the campaign leading up to the August vote was marred by a series of attacks on outspoken government critics.

A federal judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a woman accused of lying to obtain US citizenship by denying her role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Jurors had failed to reach a verdict. Beatrice Munyenyezi, 41, became a US citizen in 2003 and moved to Manchester. She faced deportation to Rwanda upon conviction. Authorities say Munyenyezi was an extremist Hutu who killed and enabled the rapes of untold Tutsi victims. Prosecution witnesses testified they saw her direct rapes and killings, but her relatives testified they never saw her do so. (AP)

INTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Rwandan Children Born of Rape At: the Adams Gallery, Sargent Hall, Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont St., through Oct. 23. 617-573-8447, www.suffolk.edu/48035.html Few people over the past three decades have experienced as many horrific scenes as the photojournalist James Nachtwey has: wars, natural disasters, crimes against humanity. Several years ago, I asked him in an interview if he could say what was the worst thing he'd seen. "Rwanda," he said.

BUJUMBURA, Burundi -- Gunmen killed the pope's ambassador in Burundi yesterday, firing on his car as he was returning from a funeral, and the country's president said the envoy was deliberately targeted. Archbishop Michael Courtney was shot in the head, shoulder, and a limb and died during surgery at Prince Louis Rwagasore Hospital, a hospital official said. President Domitien Ndayizeye said the 58-year-old Courtney was deliberately targeted. "It was not an accident; he was killed," Ndayizeye told reporters.

CONAKRY, Guinea - One of Africa’s most brutal rebel movements relies on a vast, international network of supporters in at least 25 countries including in the United States and Europe, a United Nations report said. The UN findings show that the network of people help rebels in Congo buy arms and transfer money. The findings were slated to be discussed by the UN Security Council yesterday and are a scathing indictment of how little the international community has done to cut off logistical support to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR, an...

OSLO — Abdul Ruzibiza, a former captain of a Tutsi rebel group and key witness in a French judge’s investigation into a 1994 attack that triggered the Rwandan genocide, has died, Norwegian police said yesterday. He was 40. Mr. Ruzibiza died in a Norwegian hospital Wednesday after a lengthy illness, said Reidun Brekke, who was Ruzibiza’s supervisor at staffing company Adecco Norway. A former captain of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Mr. Ruzibiza released a book in 2005, saying the group was behind the 1994 attack that shot down...

KIGALI, Rwanda — Police arrested the country’s most prominent opposition leader yesterday and accused her of being involved in the formation of a terrorist organization, months after she was barred from challenging the president in an election. Human rights groups have accused the Rwandan government of using terrorism allegations to stifle opposition in the country, where the campaign leading up to the August vote was marred by a series of attacks on outspoken government critics.

OSLO — Abdul Ruzibiza, a former captain of a Tutsi rebel group and key witness in a French judge’s investigation into a 1994 attack that triggered the Rwandan genocide, has died, Norwegian police said yesterday. He was 40. Mr. Ruzibiza died in a Norwegian hospital Wednesday after a lengthy illness, said Reidun Brekke, who was Ruzibiza’s supervisor at staffing company Adecco Norway. A former captain of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Mr. Ruzibiza released a book in 2005, saying the group was behind the 1994 attack that shot down President Juvenal...

CONAKRY, Guinea - One of Africa’s most brutal rebel movements relies on a vast, international network of supporters in at least 25 countries including in the United States and Europe, a United Nations report said. The UN findings show that the network of people help rebels in Congo buy arms and transfer money. The findings were slated to be discussed by the UN Security Council yesterday and are a scathing indictment of how little the international community has done to cut off logistical support to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR, an...

THE HAGUE - A Hutu man was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday for the slaying of two Tutsi mothers and at least four of their children in Rwanda's 1994 genocide . The Hague District Court acquitted Joseph Mpambara of involvement in the massacre of hundreds of other Tutsis who had sought shelter in a church. The judges said there was compelling evidence that Mpambara ordered the two Tutsi mothers and their children hauled out of an ambulance they were using to flee violence, and then killed.

KIGALI, Rwanda - Though tourists generally come to Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas, there's another attraction that is both incredibly gruesome and incredibly moving: memorials to the 1994 genocide in which at least 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days. The radical Hutu government targeted the minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, literally decimating the country's population with machetes and clubs, guns and grenades, while the world turned its back. The main genocide site is the Kigali Memorial Centre, which opened on the 10th anniversary of the...

"Beyond the Gates" ends with an extra-special thanks to the survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide who helped make this well-meant drama. Assistant directors, someone from wardrobe, someone else from props, an electrician, a nurse: most of them lost a family member or several. While it's a powerful, optimistic way to end a picture about the start of genocide, it raises a major problem: Why have we spent almost two hours watching how this atrocity affected the lives of a British Roman Catholic priest and a British teacher?

Why make movies about history's most epic failures of humanity, reducing them to some 120 minutes of melodrama, suspense, and tear-jerking? The question has haunted so many Holocaust films, with their portrayals of EZ-to-read heroism set against heart-rending strains of klezmer. HBO's Rwanda-set "Sometimes in April" clearly articulates the best answer after its final credits, with the simple phrase "Never Forget. " Translating the horrors of genocide into fictional stories is a way of embedding them in our cultural memory.

KIGALI, Rwanda - Though tourists generally come to Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas, there's another attraction that is both incredibly gruesome and incredibly moving: memorials to the 1994 genocide in which at least 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days. The radical Hutu government targeted the minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, literally decimating the country's population with machetes and clubs, guns and grenades, while the world turned its back. The main genocide site is the Kigali Memorial Centre, which opened on the 10th anniversary of the beginning of...

An Ordinary Man By Paul Rusesabagina, with Tom ZoellnerViking, 207 pp., $23.95 Usually, the book comes out before the movie. But Paul Rusesabagina's inspiring story was first told in the acclaimed film "Hotel Rwanda. " Rusesabagina's role was played by Don Cheadle, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his searing portrayal of the hotel manager who showed such courage and cunning during the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed by their fellow countrymen. In his new memoir, "An Ordinary Man," Rusesabagina (who wryly remarks that he is not nearly "as good looking"...

Last winter's "Hotel Rwanda" was a tough but inspiring true story about one man who saved more than 1,000 people from certain death during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. "Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire" is the dark, unstinting negative to that film's positive. It gives us a man who could have stopped the carnage -- 800,000 murdered in 100 days -- but whose hands were bound at the highest level. He knows this, it haunts him, and if it doesn't shame you, it should.