Rwanda tribunal hands down sentences.

Three people were convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha on 18 December for their role in the 1994 genocide. The United Nations-backed court handed down life sentences against former senior defence official Theoneste Bagosora, aged 67, and former military commanders Anatole Nsegiyumva and Alloys Ntabakuze for organising, training and arming the Interahamwe, the extremist Hutu militia responsible for much of the killing. The accused were also found guilty of compiling a list of Tutsis and moderate Hutus who opposed their idea of an ethnically pure Rwanda.

In a separate case the ICTR has also handed down a 20-year jail sentence against Protais Zigiranyirazo, aged 57, brother-in-law of the former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana whose murder on 6 April 1994 sparked the genocide. Zigiranyirazo was found guilty of ordering the killing of 48 people in two separate incidents.

Up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in Rwanda between April and June 1994 before Tutsi rebels led by Paul Kagame, today