Rwandan genocide
Stark reminder of the Rwandan genocide Creative Common

The UN tribunal into war crimes arising from the 1994 Rwandan genocide has convicted the country's former youth minister of genocide and crimes against humanity.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has found Callixte Nzabonimana guilty of instigating the killing of Tutsis who had been taking refuge at the Nyabikenke commune office in April 1994 and to have directly and publicly incited the killing of Tutsis in three incidents.

He has been jailed for life.

The ICTR, based in the Tanzanian city of Arusha, was set up after the genocide in which at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed over three months.

Nzabonimana was arrested in February 2008 in Tanzania. His trial began in November 2009.

"The trial chamber found that Nzabonimana instigated the killing of Tutsis. It also found Nzabonimana guilty of entering into two separate agreements to kill Tutsis," the ICTR said.

He took part in a government meeting on 18 April, 1994 in the town of Murambi, in the central Gitaram province.

This meeting led to an agreement between Nzabonimana and other ministers "to encourage the killing of Tutsis with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Tutsi population as such in Gitarama prefecture," court found.

His lawyer said he will appeal.

The ICTR is due to finish its work by the end of 2014.

Rwanda