Saturday, June 25, 2011

Gender No Defense Against Genocide

Not that this didn't happen; however, after a while you begin to see the U.N.'s selectivity as racist.

So when are Bliar and Bush going to be before the bar?

"Rwandan is 1st woman convicted of genocide by a world court; She is sentenced to life in prison along with son" by Marlise Simons, New York Times / June 25, 2011

PARIS — A United Nations tribunal handed a former government minister and her son life imprisonment yesterday for their roles in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, finding them guilty of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, including multiple rapes. The former minister, who had been in charge of family and women’s affairs, is the first woman to be convicted of genocide by an international tribunal.

Also see: Common Occurences in the Congo

Four others at the joint trial were also convicted yesterday by the court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is based in Arusha, Tanzania.

Although other women have been similarly sentenced by local courts in Rwanda, the conviction of the former minister, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 65, stands out because of her position. The court found that as family minister, she had used her political power to help abduct and kill uncounted Tutsi men, women, and children in her home district of Butare in southern Rwanda.  

Did she tell lies like AmeriKa's leaders?

The court said that in her region, she had issued orders to the feared Interahamwe, the Hutu militia, whose mission was to hunt and kill as many ethnic Tutsis as possible.

The three-month killing frenzy across Rwanda in summer 1994 left more than 500,000 people dead, most of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus.  

It was once estimated at 800,000, but that must have been revised down.

The government minister’s son, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, who was in his early 20s and a student at the time, also was found guilty of helping to organize the massacres in Butare, where he had joined his mother and became a militia leader.  

Mama's boy.

The court found that Ntahobali, together with militia and soldiers, had been stationed at one particular roadblock, near Hotel Ihuliro, that “earned the reputation of being one of the most terrifying roadblocks in Butare’’ and was “the site of numerous beatings, rapes, and killings.’’

Mother and son have said they were not guilty of any charges....

In earlier verdicts, the Rwanda tribunal had found that rape was used as part of genocide, but in this case they charged the counts of rape as a crime against humanity and a war crime.  

Setting new standards?

The case against Nyiramasuhuko remains unusual in the history of modern UN tribunals, where female defendants have been rare.

She is the first woman to be found guilty by an international tribunal not only of genocide, but also of rape, because of her “responsibility as a superior.’’  

Does that ever open the door to prosecute western war criminals!!

Yesterday’s judgments concluded a trial that began 10 years ago, an uncommonly long time even by the standards of war crimes trials....

--more--"