BBC News, 1
March 2013
 |
| Basebya is the first Dutch citizen to be convicted of crimes related to the genocide |
Rwanda:
Haunted Nation
A
Rwandan-born Dutch citizen has been sentenced to six years and eight months in
jail for inciting genocide.
Yvonne
Basebya, 66, incited against her ethnic Tutsi neighbours before the Rwandan
genocide in 1994, before moving to the Netherlands in 1998.
She was
cleared of other charges, including perpetrating genocide, murder and war
crimes.
Some
800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the Rwandan genocide.
The case
made Basebya the first Dutch citizen to be convicted of crimes related to the
genocide.
Basebya
wore a pink jacket, black trousers and sat impassively during the sentencing,
the AFP news agency reported.
"She
incited unfortunate youngsters to commit murder against Tutsis during meetings,
as evidenced by the song she sang, 'Tuba Tsembe Tsembe', which means 'let's
exterminate them all'," Judge Rene Elkerbout said.
The wife of
a former Rwandan government minister, Agustin Basebya, she immigrated to the
Netherlands in 1998 - before her crimes were known.
She was
prosecuted as a Dutch citizen, but other war crimes suspects have been put on
trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The ICTR is
due to close in 2014 after it has finalised more than a dozen outstanding
appeal cases.
It says it
has completed more than 70 cases since it was set up under a UN Security
Council resolution in November 1994 to try the ringleaders of the genocide.
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