Belgian court found a former Rwandan army major guilty

A Belgian court found a former Rwandan army major guilty of murdering 10 Belgian peacekeepers and an undetermined number of civilians in the early days of the African republic's 1994 genocide. However, the jury acquitted Bernard Ntuyahaga of involvement in the murder of then Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and in the killing of civilians in the district of Butare between June and July 1994. The Belgian U.N. soldiers were killed a day after the Rwandan president's plane was shot down on April 6, 1994, triggering the genocide in which Hutu-led government forces and ethnic militias killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Prosecutors said Ntuyahaga took the peacekeepers from the residence of the prime minister, whom they were trying to protect, and handed them over to fellow soldiers at a military camp in the capital, Kigali, where they were beaten to death, shot or slain with machetes. Ntuyahaga's defense said he was a political scapegoat, who had only been passing the prime minister's residence by chance and had given the Belgians a ride at their request.