Fabien Neretse will be sentenced on Friday, with a possible life sentence in the offing. According to the indictment, Neretse set up a militia that killed members of the Tutsi community.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Maina
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Rwandan official Fabien Neretse became the first person to be convicted on charges of genocide, a Brussels court ruled on Thursday.
According to Belgian newspaper De Standaard, the 71-year-old, who had pleaded not guilty, will discover his fate on Friday, with a life sentence expected.
The agricultural scientist was accused of having ordered the massacre of 11 people in the Rwandan capital of Kigali and two more civilians in a rural area north of the country's largest city in 1994.
Fabien Neretse, who has been found guilty of genocide in Rwanda, is seen here at the beginning of his trial in front of the Palace of JusticeImage: AFP/J. Thys
After two days of deliberation, the jury cleared him of two of the Kigali murders but found him guilty of 11 war crimes under Belgium's code of universal jurisdiction for the most serious offences.
To demonstrate the more serious charge of genocide, the prosecutor highlighted the Rwandan official's attendance of public rallies, encouraging fellow members of the Hutu ethnic group to slaughter the minority Tutsi community.
The jury concurred with this narrative, based on multiple witnesses, despite Neretse's defense being based on discrediting those witnesses.
Belgium has previously held four trials and convicted eight perpetrators of killings in Rwanda, but Neretse is the first defendant to be found guilty of genocide.
"I will never stop insisting that I neither planned nor took part in the genocide," Naretse said at the trial's conclusion on Tuesday.
Lengthy pursuit of justice
70-year-old Martine Beckers, whose sister, brother-in-law and 20-year-old niece were shot dead by a group linked to Naretse, instigated a formal complaint with the Belgian federal police in 1994. In the years that followed, working with witnesses and human rights groups, she believes she has traced the people behind the murder of her relatives.
Magistrates have been compiling evidence in the case for 15 years and the fact that it came to trial "owes a lot to her determination," her lawyer Eric Gillet said prior to the hearings.
Talking to news agency AFP from her Belgian home, Beckers described her struggle as a "joint combat" on behalf of all of the victims.
Over the course of just 100 days in April 1994, up to 1 million people were killed in Rwanda while the world watched without acting. Trauma still runs deep 28 years after the genocide, yet art addressing it may help.
In the British Netflix series, Kate digs into the turmoil of her past. She wants to put those responsible for the genocide in her home country behind bars, but that puts her in grave danger. It's a dramatic reappraisal of the genocide — and its aftermath to this day, accompanied by Leonard Cohen's "You want it darker" as the soundtrack.
Paul Rusesabagina ran the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali in 1994. During the genocide, he protected more than 1,200 people from certain death. In 2004, the story was turned into the film "Hotel Rwanda." The disturbing drama was not only nominated for three Oscars, but also reminded the general public of the atrocities of the genocide.
Romeo Dallaire (photo) was commander of the UN mission in Rwanda before and during the genocide. In his book "Shake Hands with the Devil," he lays blame on the international community for the catastrophe of 1994. The Canadian had said that intervention was vital in order to stop the murder, but his cries for help and those of the Rwandans went unheeded. His book was turned into a film in 2007.
Image: A.Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Hate Radio
Radio was used by the genocidaires, who perpetrated the genocide in Rwanda, as a propaganda tool to spread their hate messages throughout the country. The RTLM broadcaster called Tutsi and moderate Hutu "cockroaches." In his play "Hate Radio," the Swiss theater director Milo Rau stages a frighteningly authentic day in the studio of the infamous station.
Image: IIPM/Daniel Seiffert
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
The church is also partly to blame for the genocide in Rwanda. This dramatic, formal sentence from a Tutsi pastor's letter to a church superior collaborating with the genocidaires was chosen by US journalist Phillip Gourevitch as the title of his book. In Rwanda, he collected reports from survivors. Through them, he tried to understand the psychological aftermath of the genocide.
Shooting Dogs
The film "Shooting Dogs" shows how quickly a supposedly healthy world became hell on earth. In a school in Kigali, hundreds of people seek shelter from the murderous militias waiting outside the gates. They initially believe that the UN blue helmets can protect them, but then the evacuations of Americans and Europeans begin. The Rwandans are left behind — and the killing starts.
Image: picture-alliance/Mary Evans
Left to tell
For 91 days, Immaculee Ilibagiza hid in the bathroom of a pastor's house. Machete-wielding men had been looking for her and the seven other women who had taken refuge in the small room. When they were finally able to leave, she discovered that almost her entire family had been murdered. She believes that it was her faith that saved her, and has written about the genocide and its lasting effects.
Rwandan Records
Even 25 years after the genocide, Rwandans remain inextricably linked to the darkest chapter in their history. But many Rwandans also want to look to the future — including rapper Eric1key and the "Rwandan Records" project. Their goal is to show how the victim mentality may be overcome by promoting the perspective of self-confident people. They've had shows in Berlin and Rwanda.
