Former Rwandan premier sentenced; ex-Mayor held guilty.

• Position: Jean Kambanda; Jean-Paul Akayesu

"Despite the indisputable atrociousness of the crimes and the emotions evoked in the international community, the judges have examined the facts adduced in a most dispassionate manner, bearing in mind that the accused is presumed innocent." With these words, among others, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in the first-ever judgement by an international court for the crime of genocide, on 2 September found Jean-Paul Akayesu guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Two days later, the Tribunal sentenced former Rwandan Prime Minister, Jean Kambanda, who had pleaded guilty to genocide charges, to life imprisonment.

Mr. Akayesu, former bourgmestre (mayor) of Taba, was indicted on 15 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II thereto. In its judgement, Trial Chamber I-Judges Laity Kama (Senegal), presiding; Lennart Aspegren (Sweden); and Navanethem Pillay (South Africa)unanimously found Mr. Akayesu guilty of 9 out of 15 counts on which he was charged and to which he had pleaded not guilty.

Specifically, he was found guilty of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity (extermination, murder, torture, rape, and other inhumane acts). But the Tribunal also held that he was not guilty of the crimes of complicity in genocide and violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions (murder and cruel treatment) and of Article 4(2)(e) of Additional Protocol II (outrage upon personal dignity, in particular rape, degrading and humiliating treatment, and indecent assault).

In this precedent-establishing case in which genocide, as defined in the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), was interpreted for the first time by an international tribunal, the Rwanda Tribunal recalled that genocide means "the act of committing certain crimes, including the killing of members of the group or causing serious physical or mental harm to members of the group, with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial or religious group, as such".

With respect to the charges of Violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocol II thereto, the Chamber concluded that a non-international armed conflict in Rwanda in 1994, and that this conflict was well within the provisions of these laws. However, it found that the Prosecution had...