The international tribunal trying suspected ringleaders from Rwanda's 1994 civil war yesterday found the former Interahamwe militia leader, Omar Serushago, guilty of genocide.
Serushago, who headed the extremist Hutu militia in the north-western Gisenyi region, had pleaded guilty earlier in the day to four of five genocide-related counts, including being "responsible for murders and grave attacks on the physical and mental integrity of the Tutsi population with the aim of destroying all or part of that ethnic or racial group," the independent Hirondelle news agency reported.
He also pleaded guilty to torturing Tutsis. The prosecutor withdrew charges of rape - which counts as a crime against humanity - after Serushago denied them.
He was only the third person to be found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, set up in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha in November 1994, after the former prime minister, Jean Kambanda, who also pleaded guilty, and JeanPaul Akayesu, who was mayor of the central commune of Taba, and who pleaded not guilty. Both were sentenced to life in prison, but are appealing to the appellate court shared by this tribunal and the UN tribunal in The Hague.
Serushago, whose pre-sentencing hearing is due on January 29th, was arrested on June 10th in Cote d'Ivoire and transferred to Arusha a month later. He is represented by a Tanzanian lawyer, Mr Mohamed Ismael.
The tribunal was set up by the UN Security Council to try those held responsible for the 1994 genocide, in which between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
Twenty-eight other suspects held in a specially built UN jail in Arusha are undergoing trials, or waiting for them to begin, prompting criticism that the tribunal is taking an inordinately long time to conclude cases.
The tribunal must designate the country where each convicted defendant must serve his or her prison term, but so far only four European countries have offered to accept prisoners.
Furthermore, Sweden and Switzerland, which along with Norway and Belgium have offered their prisons, are willing to take only prisoners who have dual nationality or have been resident in those states.
The judges on the tribunal, which does not have the power to impose the death sentence, believe convicted defendants should serve their time in Africa, for humanitarian and cultural reasons. Again, there have been few offers to the tribunal. Only Rwanda has offered to imprison the perpetrators of its genocide, an unacceptable destination for anyone found guilty of killing the friends and relatives of those now in power.
Rwandan courts are also conducting their own genocide trials, and have handed down some 100 death sentences.
In April, 22 people found guilty of genocide were shot dead in public executions around Rwanda. More than 130,000 others are languishing in overcrowded prisons on suspicion of genocide.