Brussels jury convicts Rwandans for genocide

29 June 2005

BRUSSELS — The jury of a Brussels Court has convicted two Rwandan beer traders for involvement in genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s.

The jury took 12 hours to convict Etienne Nzabonimana on most of the 57 charges laid against him. In particular, he was found guilty of involvement in the mass murder of a number of unidentified victims at various locations.

Samuel Ndashyikirwa was found guilty on 23 of the 24 counts laid against him. He was found innocent of a separate murder.

Both Nzabonimana, 54, and his half-brother Ndashyikirwa, 43, denied they were involved in the mass murders in the south-east of Rwanda, where 50,000 people were killed in April 1994.

But according to the jury, both men helped in the murder of the Tutsis and later supplied the Hutu militias with beer.

They were arrested in 2002 in Schaarbeek and Antwerp after Rwandans living in Belgium tipped off police. They have been in remand custody since then and the trial started on 9 May.

They were prosecuted based on the amended Belgian genocide law, in which war criminals can be tried in Belgium if they are Belgian nationals or residents.

The case — which started two months ago — is the second process in Belgium over the Rwandan genocide. A court convicted four Rwandans in 2001 of war crimes and sentenced them to 10, 12 and 15 years in prison.

Belgium was the colonial power in Rwanda, but the African nation won its independence in 1962.

Subject: Belgian news