Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 7 July 2016: French court jailed two Rwandans mayors

On Wednesday, after an eight-week trial in France, a Paris court jailed for life two former Rwandan mayors. They were accused of orchestrating the massacre of hundreds of Tutsis. It took place during the genocide in 1994. Over 90 witnesses and six experts had testified at the trial in this case. The court said Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira were guilty of "crimes against humanity", "massive and systematic summary executions" and "genocide" in village of Kabarondo. It is worth to recall that during the ethnic cleansing about 2,000 people hid in the church in their village. All of them were killed. Murder weapons, used by the captors were mostly machetes.

We can read in French press, that “both men appeared impassive as the judge read out their sentences”. Moreover, they don’t want to admit to their crimes. Prosecutor Philippe Courroye described Barahira as the "dreaded machete officer".

During the genocide in Rwanda, about 800,000 people suffered death. They were mostly ethnic Tutsis, killed by Hutu. The ethnic cleansing began just after the shooting down aircraft of Rwanda's president, Juvenal Habyarimana.

The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) sentenced 61 people for their role in the genocide. ICTR ended its mandate in 2015. In addition to France, the perpetrators of genocide were tried by the courts in Belgium, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and the United States.