Rwandan priest guilty of genocide

[muriel_volestrangler]

A Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in Rwanda's genocide by the United Nations-backed war crimes court.

He was accused of ordering his own church to be destroyed where some 2,000 ethnic Tutsis sought shelter.

All those inside the building are said to have died.

Father Athanase Seromba was the first priest to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal, sitting in Arusha in Tanzania.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6175717.stm

15 years seems a very light sentence for mass murder.

[Crap_in_a_Hat]

1. I've heard of that guy

My dad is a friend of Philip Gourevitch, so I read the latter's book about Rwanda. Seromba is covered extensively.

[maddezmom]

2. disgusting...15 yrs for 2000 dead

:mad:

[Benhurst]

3. Yeah, but then there is Bush and 600,000 dead Iraqis. He'll

probably not even be tried for his war crimes.

[rinsd]

4. Hooray for Ramsey Clark!

:sarcasm:

[fujiyama]

5. I don't really care for Ramsey Clark

but what does he have to do with this? Did he defend the priest? I know he has a history of defending some seedy people, including several war criminals...

[rinsd]

7. Along with Milosevic and Hussein this guy made Ramsey's trifecta (nt)

[MasonJar]

6. I do not know what Ramsey Clark did in this instance, but our free-

dom is predicated on a fair trial for everyone, at least until W took over. Are you arguing against Clark representing people that you have prejudged as evildoers? Our country is now run by evildoers with that exact philosophy.

[uppityperson]

8. more from BBC story. Glad he finally got sentenced. Wish it was for longer.

Prosecutors said that after he ordered the church to be demolished by bulldozers, he sent in militiamen to kill any survivors with machetes and guns.

[CHIMO]

9. UN under fire for inaction in Rwanda

COMPERE: The United Nations is under fire for its failure to halt the 1994 genocide in the central African state of Rwanda. In just over 100 days up to a million people were slaughtered despite a direct warning of the impending killing and the presence of UN peacekeepers in the country.

As Africa correspondent, Ben Wilson, reports, an independent investigation into the UN's role in the genocide is calling on the world body to formally apologise to the Rwandan people.

BEN WILSON: The UN report contains little that's new but is nonetheless scathing, accusing the world body of a deplorable failure to protect the Rwandan people. Before the 1994 genocide began, the United Nations peacekeeping department led at the time by Kofi Annan was warned about the impending bloodbath. An informer to the UN contingent in Kigali told the commanding officer, General Romeo Delaire that Hutu extremists had drawn up death lists. The slaughter was about to begin.

He sent an urgent cable to the peacekeeping department in New York urging that, with the correct mandate, his forces in Rwanda could act to disarm the increasingly hostile militia. Nothing happened. His please fell on deaf ears, a failure which haunts the Canadian general to this day.

http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s74048.htm

Rawanda is an item that will probably be left to historians to document as no one wants to listen.