Rwandan Enters Guilty Plea at Genocide Court
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ARUSHA, Tanzania — A Rwandan militia leader pleaded guilty before a United Nations court Monday to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1994 massacres of more than 800,000 people.
He was formally convicted by the court’s panel of three judges, who said the sentencing process will start Jan. 29.
Omar Serushago, a leader of the notorious Hutu Interahamwe militia in Gisenyi in northwest Rwanda, was the second defendant to plead guilty to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since it was set up in late 1994.
Hutu extremists linked to Rwanda’s former government launched the massacres in the tiny Central African country in an attempt to exterminate the ethnic Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus who opposed the genocide.
Ironically, Serushago’s mother was a Tutsi and he was married to a Tutsi, raising the possibility that he became involved to deflect accusations concerning his own ethnic ties.
Serushago, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of genocide and three counts of crimes against humanity.
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