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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Rwanda_______________
Nuns found guilty of war crimes
Belgian court claims jurisdiction for genocide
Four Rwandans, including two Benedictine nuns, have been found guilty in a Belgian court on charges of helping in the massacre of thousands of Tutsis in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
University professor Vincent Ntezimana, businessman and ex-transport minister Alphonse Higaniro, and Benedictine Sisters Gertrude Mukangango and Kisito Mukabutera, were found guilty by a jury of seven men and five women in a landmark trial that lasted eight weeks. The four were tried in Belgium under a 1993 law giving the country’s courts universal jurisdiction over war criminals, regardless of where the crimes were committed or the nationality of the defendants. It was the first time a civilian jury in one country has judged suspected war criminals from another country.
The four were found guilty of helping Hutu extremists kill and burn over 5,000 Tutsi refugees who had sought shelter in the two nuns’ convent. They allegedly provided cans of gasoline to the killers who torched buildings housing the refugees. The defendants said they had been acting under duress, and were forced to comply with the killers’ orders.
One of the lawyers representing the families of the victims said the case could spur moves for an international war-crimes tribunal. “This law has come under fire for giving Belgium super powers to meddle in others’ affairs, but today it has been shown to be a wise law,” said Olivier Slusny, lawyer for a group of some 25,000 Rwandan widows.
Reacting to the decision by the Belgian court, a Vatican spokesman reminded reporters that the Church as a whole cannot be held responsible for the bloodshed. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the director of the Vatican press office, called attention to a statement that Pope John Paul II had made in 1996: “The Church . . . cannot be held responsible for the guilt of her members who have acted against the law of the Gospel; they themselves will be called to give account of their actions.” In that same statement, the Holy Father had encouraged any Catholics who were guilty of war crimes “to assume the consequences of the actions taken against God and against neighbor.”
The Vatican spokesman expressed surprise that “only a few persons” have been called to account for “the responsibilities of many people and groups who were also involved in the immense genocide carried out in the heart of Africa.” Navarro-Valls did not comment directly on the court verdict, except to say that he hoped “the accused are able to present their own version of the facts.”