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| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
 | This Rwandan biography article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Athanase Seromba | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963 (age 59–60) |
| Occupation | Priest |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated |
| Conviction(s) | Genocide Crimes against humanity |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment |
Athanase Seromba (born 1963) is a Catholic priest from Rwanda who was found guilty of committing genocide and of crimes against humanity during the Rwandan genocide. [1] [2] [3]
At the time of the genocide, Seromba was the priest in charge of a Catholic parish at Nyange in the Kibuye province of western Rwanda. He was convicted of committing genocide due to his providing of key and necessary approval for the bulldozing of his church, where 1,500–2,000 Tutsis were taking refuge, with the intent to not only kill large numbers of people, but specifically to destroy the Tutsis as an ethnic group. [4]
Seromba fled Rwanda in July 1994. Catholic monks helped him move to Italy, change his name and also helped him work as a priest for the Catholic Church near the city of Florence using the alias Anastasio Sumba Bura. [5] Under pressure from Carla Del Ponte, the then Chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor, Seromba surrendered himself to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on February 6, 2002. On February 8, 2002, he pleaded not guilty to the charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. His trial began on September 20, 2004, before the Third Trial Chamber of the ICTR. On 13 December 2006, he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison. [6]
Seromba appealed the verdict. On 12 March 2008, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) decided his responsibility was greater than previously found, affirmed his conviction, and increased his punishment to life in prison. [7]
On 27 June 2009, Seromba was transferred to Benin. He is serving his life sentence at Akpro-Missérété prison at Porto-Novo, Benin. [8]
| International | |
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| National | |
| | This Rwandan biography article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994. The court eventually convicted 61 individuals and acquitted 14.
Théoneste Bagosora was a Rwandan military officer. He was chiefly known for his key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). In 2011, the sentence was reduced to 35 years' imprisonment on appeal. He was due to be imprisoned until he was 89. According to René Lemarchand, Bagosora was "the chief organizer of the killings". On 25 September 2021, he died in a prison hospital in Mali, where he was being treated for heart issues.
Elizaphan Ntakirutimana was a pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Rwanda and was the first clergyman to be convicted for a role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Pauline Nyiramasuhuko is a Rwandan politician who was the Minister for Family Welfare and the Advancement of Women. She was convicted of having incited troops and militia to carry out rape during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. She was tried for genocide and incitement to rape as part of the "Butare Group" at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. In June 2011, she was convicted of seven charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. Nyiramasuhuko is the first woman to be convicted of genocide by the ICTR, and the first woman to be convicted of genocidal rape.
Protais Zigiranyirazo commonly known as Monsieur Zed, is a Rwandan businessman and politician and was governor of the Ruhengeri prefecture in northwestern Rwanda from 1974 to 1989. Zigiranyirazo was a member of the Akazu, an elite circle of relatives and friends of former President Juvénal Habyarimana who pushed the Hutu Power ideology.
Jean-Paul Akayesu is a former teacher, school inspector, and Republican Democratic Movement (MDR) politician from Rwanda, convicted of genocide for his role in inciting the Rwandan genocide.
Simon Bikindi was a Rwandan singer-songwriter who was formerly very popular in Rwanda. His patriotic songs were playlist staples on the national radio station Radio Rwanda during the war from October 1990 to July 1994 before the Rwandan Patriotic Front took power. For actions during the april 1994's genocide against Tutsi, he was tried and convicted for incitement to genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2008. He died of diabetes at a Beninese hospital in late 2018.
Georges Henri Yvon Joseph Ruggiu is a Belgian radio presenter who worked for Rwandan radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, which played a significant role in promoting the genocide against the Tutsi. Like the station's other broadcasters, Ruggiu incited violence against Tutsi and moderate Hutu over the air. He had become involved in Rwandan politics just two years before the genocide.
Nyarubuye is a district (akarere) of the East Province in Rwanda. Its area is 439 km², and its population in 2002 was 49,565.
Félicien Kabuga is a génocidaire and Rwandan businessman who played a major role in the run-up to the Genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis. A multimillionaire, he was closely connected to dictator Juvénal Habyarimana's Hutu nationalist MRND party and the Akazu, an informal group of Hutu extremists who helped lead the Rwandan genocide.
Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza was a convicted Génocidiare and politician associated with the Hutu Power movement. A high-ranking civil servant, Barayagwiza served as policy director within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time of the Rwandan genocide. He has been described as one of the "masterminds" of the genocide.
Ferdinand Nahimana is a Rwandan historian, who was convicted of incitement to genocide for his role in the Rwandan genocide.
Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka is a Rwandan priest working in France who was convicted of genocide by a Rwandan military court. Munyeshyaka was pursued in the French courts but in October 2015 the case was not continued because of the quality of the evidence. Despite the controversy and his Rwandan conviction he has been employed as a priest in France since 2001.
Christianity is the largest religion in Rwanda. The most recent national census from 2012 indicates that: 43.7% of Rwanda's population is Roman Catholic, 37.7% is Protestant, 11.8% is Seventh-day Adventist, 2.0% is Muslim, 2.5% claims no religious affiliation, and 0.7% is Jehovah's Witness.
Génocidaires are Rwandans who are guilty of genocide due to their involvement in the mass killings which were perpetrated in Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 Rwandans, primarily Tutsis and moderate Hutu, were murdered by the Interahamwe. In the aftermath of the genocide, Rwandans who organized and led the genocide were put on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Those guilty of lesser crimes, such as participation, profiting through seizing Tutsi property, and the like, were put on trial in gacaca courts. Today the ICTR has indicted over ninety-three individuals of genocide. In 2020 Felicien Kabuga, the main financier of the Rwandan Genocide, was found in suburban France, after evading capture for over twenty-six years.
Fulgence Kayishema is a Rwandan Hutu militiaman arrested for war crimes in relation to his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Born in Kivumu, he was the inspector of the judicial police there at the time of the genocide. His indictment cites his involvement in massacres from April 6, 1994, until April 20, along with Athanase Seromba, Grégoire Ndahimana, Télesphore Ndungutse, the judge Joseph Habiyambere and the assistant mayor Vedaste Mupende.
Grégoire Ndahimana is the former mayor of Kivumu, Rwanda. Indicted and arrested for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Ndahimana is thought to be one of the key figures in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and is claimed to have had up to 6,000 Tutsi killed. In 2013, he was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Emmanuel Rukundo is a Rwandan Roman Catholic priest who in 2009 was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for his participation in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda is a Rwandan politician who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for his role in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Charles Ayodeji Adeogun-Phillips is a former United Nations genocide and war crimes prosecutor, international lawyer and founder of Charles Anthony (Lawyers) LLP.