Juridics Rwanda: Theo Bagosora, Chief of Staff, in Defense Ministry during Rwanda massacre, gets lifetime jail

A colonel and chief of staff for Rwanda's defense ministry, Theoneste Bogosora, was finally convicted after a 5 year-long trial in nearby country of Tanzania, convicted by an international court set-up for the purpose. The criminal tribunal did not find the culprit guilty of a "planned ...extermination from the beginning," reports Chris McGreal, "'Enemies of humanity' jailed for war crimes," Guardian, Dec19,2k8.

The man accused of masterminding the 1994 Rwanda genocide, Theoneste Bagosora, was jailed for life by an international court yesterday as prosecutors described his conviction as the most significant since Nuremberg.

Bagosora, 67, a former colonel who was the chief of staff in Rwanda's defence ministry, was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes at the end of a five-year trial after judges found that he used the military and an extremist Hutu militia to kickstart the massacre of about 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days.

There are many things that don't add up to this day about the Rwandan genocide. The campaign of Barack Obama made much of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, noting the USA was remiss in not ending it; but he made no mention of Rwanda's genocide in 1994 which the US did nothing about, presumably because of the hotly-won policy of the Black Congressional Caucus that America should no longer intervene in African matters, even wars and genocides. It was this policy that Clinton followed into inaction.

Because now genocide has been officially defined as a cause for intervention (such interventions are rather limited to Western governments) with very heavy sanctions, Western and any other states possibly ready to act, are cautioned--due to the circumstances of UN policy and the collateral agreements states have entered into for the purpose of prevention. Thus, generally, little or nothing stops the killers or delays the intervention until the victims are dead on a vast scale.

Politicarp