U.S.: More work needed on Rwanda

Washington said that, after nearly 20 years since the genocide in Rwanda, a 15-year prison sentence for a former leader was an important but limited step. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda announced Thursday Gregoire Ndahimana, a former leader from the region, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes against humanity. The ICTR found that Ndahimana committed the crime of extermination by "aiding and abetting as well as by virtue of his command responsibility over communal police in (Rwanda's city of) Kivumu," the court found. A charge of complicity to genocide was dropped. Ndahimana was accused of conspiring with a Catholic priest in the area to kill thousands of Tutsi civilians in his town by razing a local church sheltering the ethnic community. He was captured in 2009. Nearly all of the Tutsis in his community were killed during the genocide. The tribunal found that Ndahimana didn't act alone in the church massacre. "Though this did in no way exonerate the accused, it did, however, suggest that his participation through aiding and abetting may have resulted from duress rather that from extremist or ethnic hatred," the judges ruled. Washington said it welcomed the conviction of Ndahimana, noting he failed to prevent a massacre of the Tutsi people while tasked with governing the people. "There are still nine ICTR fugitives at-large and the United States urges all countries to redouble their cooperation with the ICTR so that these fugitives can be expeditiously arrested and brought to justice," said Mark Toner, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, in a statement.