The truth has to be revealed under any circumstances. But sometimes it will take a little longer to uncover. Recently, Sosthene Munyemana, a 68-year-old former gynecologist, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his role in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

The Rwandan Genocide happened between April 7 and July 15, 1994, during the Rwandan civil war. During this period, Hutu armed militias killed members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group and some moderate Hutu and Twa for around 100 days. Due to the genocide, more than 1 million people passed away, and the real number killed is probably lower. On some accounts, around 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi deaths have happened.

This Rwandan doctor is sentenced to 24 years in prison for his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide of Tutsis in his native East African country. He was charged with drafting a letter of support for an interim government to encourage the massacre of Tutsis. He also purported to have set up roadblocks to round up victims and retained them in cruel conditions before their killings in Butare, Rwanda. The trial happened at the Assize Court in Paris. It was a six-week-long ordeal that ensued almost three decades after a complaint was filed against Sosthene Munyemana in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux in 1995.  After a contemplation lasting nearly 15 hours, the doctor was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and participation in a conspiracy to prepare for those crimes. He has disavowed any wrongdoing, and his lawyers are saying that he will appeal the judgment.

The public prosecutor had strived for a sentence of 30 years and argued a total of his choices showed the traits of genocide. The judge gave a judgment that Munyemana was part of a group that prepared, organized, and steered the genocide of the Tutsis on a daily basis and sentenced him to 24 years in jail. After the verdict, Munyemana was instantly incarcerated.

Munyemana was accused of co-signing, in April 1994, a motion of support for the interim government that directed the genocide and also took part in a local committee and meeting that arranged roundups of Tutsi civilians. Most of the people who were killed in the genocide were from the minority Tutsi ethnic group and opponents of the extremist Hutu government.

Munyemana moved to France in September 1994, where his wife was already living. He also worked as a doctor and retired recently. He is the sixth suspect to face trial. During the trial, he constantly denied the charges against him and said that he had been a moderate Hutu who tried to save Tutsis by offering them shelter in the local government offices. The genocide came to light with the death of Rwanda's president, Juvenal Habyarimana, when the plane he was traveling on was shot down above the airport in Kigali on April 6th. The president was from Rwanda’s Hutu ethnic majority. After the death of the president, an interim government was established by Jean Kambanda, the prime minister. Munyemana was close to Kambanda, who is currently serving a life sentence for his role in the genocide that was imposed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Reference:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide

2) https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/historical-background.shtml#:~:text=Throughout%20the%20colonial%20era%2C%20the,Tutsis%20to%20flee%20to%20Burundi

(Input from various media sources)

(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina)