Hutu pleads guilty to genocide
2007-07-13 20:48
Arusha - A former Rwandan Hutu mayor pleaded guilty on Friday to committing crimes against humanity as he appeared before the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Juvenal Rugambarara was mayor of Bicumbi commune about 30km east of the capital Kigali during the 1994 genocide.
"I plead guilty," he told the court, adding that he had not taken measures to punish subordinates involved in the massacre of Tutsis in his commune.
In recognition of his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped eight of the nine charges against Rugambarara and will seek a reduced sentence of between nine and 12 years in prison.
Rugambarara is the second former mayor to be tried for crimes against humanity before the UN court, and the eighth defendant to plead guilty.
The Tanzania-based court, formed in 1994, has so far convicted 28 genocide suspects and acquitted five.
Rugambarara appealed to Rwandan President Paul Kagame to "intensify the fight for unity and reconciliation of all Rwandans so that Hutus, Tutsis" and the indigenous Twas people of Rwanda "can live together like the retina and pupil of an eye".
Kagame headed the Tutsi rebel force that eventually halted the slaughter.
In the space of just a few months in 1994, about 800 000 people - mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus - were massacred by Hutu extremists in the central African country.
- SAPA