A Roman Catholic priest has been convicted of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide by ordering militiamen to destroy a church while about 2,000 Tutsis were seeking shelter inside.

The Rev. Athanase Seromba was sentenced to 15 years in jail on Wednesday for his role in the killing, but will receive credit for four years already served. He is the first priest to be tried at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, based in Arusha in Tanzania.

In the genocide, which lasted 100 days, about 800,000 Rwandans, mainly Tutsis, were killed by Hutu extremists. Tutsis are a minority group in Rwanda.

According to prosecutors at the trial, when 2,000 Tutsis sought shelter in his church in Nyange in western Rwanda, militiamen tried to kill them with machetes and guns; Seromba then ordered them to bulldoze the church on April 12, 1994.

Seromba was found guilty of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. He denied the charges.

The tribunal, backed by the United Nations, has held trials for 31 people since it was convened 12 years ago, according to a report by BBC News.

Authorities have detained about 63,000 suspects in Rwanda implicated in the genocide, and justice officials said at least 761,000 should be forced to stand trial for taking part in the mass killing. The suspects make up about 9.2 per cent of Rwanda's population of 8.2 million people.

Nun jailed for 30 years

In November, the tribunal sentenced a Roman Catholic nun to 30 years in prison for her role in the killing of hundreds of people who had sought shelter in a hospital. The nun was convicted of helping militiamen carry out the murders.

Thousands of Rwandans have become disillusioned with Catholicism because church officials, including priests and nuns, have been implicated in the killings and some churches became massacre sites.

The genocide is said to have begun on April 6, 1994 after a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down as it was getting ready to land in the capital, Kigali. It is said to have ended when rebels, organized by current President Paul Kagame, toppled the Hutu government that had organized the killing.

Militia members, the armed forces and civilians are said to have carried out atrocities, mostly against Tutsis, but also against moderate Hutus who were refused to kill or who belonged to opposition parties.

The tribunal was established by a UN Security Council resolution in 1994 to prosecute organizers and leaders of the Rwandan genocide.


 

With files from the Associated Press