ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 4, 1997 TAG: 9701060034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: KIBUNGO, RWANDA
SOURCE: Associated Press
A Rwandan court sentenced two Hutu men to death Friday, in the country's first efforts to punish those responsible for its 1994 genocide of a half-million people.
Deo Bizimana, a former hospital aide, and Egide Gatanaza, a former local administrator, will either be shot by a firing squad or be hanged. They were the first to be convicted among 1,946 Rwandans, mostly Hutus, accused of planning the slaughter of minority Tutsis.
More than 85,000 others are crammed into Rwandan prisons awaiting trial for lesser genocide-related crimes that took place during a 90-day orgy of state-sponsored violence from April to June 1994.
Rwanda's Tutsi-led government says genocide trials are crucial to ending a cycle of impunity that has left crimes unpunished for generations, setting the stage for the ex-Hutu government to massacre Tutsis.
Bizimana and Gatanaza have 15 days to appeal their death sentences, according to a ruling from the court in Kibungo, 60 miles southeast of the capital, Kigali.
Both men pleaded innocent to all 11 charges, including organizing massacres and raping and pillaging their Tutsi neighbors.
The two men, dressed in pink prison uniforms, showed no emotion when the three-judge panel issued the verdict. They were convicted on charges including planning genocide, genocide, crimes against humanity and rape. Lesser counts such as looting were not proved.
The courtroom, nearly full with 250 onlookers, remained silent at the sentencing. During the four-hour trial last week, the crowd booed the defendants and cheered prosecutors.
More trials are scheduled for next week for defendants including Froduald Karamira, the highest-ranking genocide suspect in custody in Rwanda. Karamira was a prominent ruling-party leader who allegedly urged Hutus to kill Tutsis, despite being a Tutsi himself.
Earlier this week, trials opened in Kigali and the northern town of Byumba.
Rwandan officials have said that once the organizers of the genocide are convicted and executed, it will be easier to show leniency for those who followed their orders.
Such leniency will help promote reconciliation, they say.
Most of the killings were committed by peasants.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB