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Rwandan army officer gets 20 years.

Bernard Ntuyahaga, a former Rwandan army officer, was handed a 20 year sentence in a Belgium court for his involvement in the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers in 1994.  He is also alleged to have been involved in the massacre of an unknown number of of Rwandan citizens.  The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda had dropped the murder and genocide charges against Ntuyhaga in 1999.  He voluntarily surrendered to Belgian authorities in 2004, after officials there had embarked on a lengthy extradition proceeding.  The murder of the Belgian peacekeepers led to U.N. withdraw from Rwanda, which opened the way for the beginnings of the genocide there, in which over 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered.

Reuters

 

Author

Daniel Graeber

Daniel Graeber is a writer for United Press International covering Iraq, Afghanistan and the broader Levant. He has published works on international and constitutional law pertaining to US terrorism cases and on child soldiers. His first major work, entitled The United States and Israel: The Implications of Alignment, is featured in the text, Strategic Interests in the Middle East: Opposition or Support for US Foreign Policy. He holds a MA in Diplomacy and International Conflict Management from Norwich University, where his focus was international relations theory, international law, and the role of non-state actors.

Areas of Focus:International law; Middle East; Government and Politics; non-state actors

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