UN convicts first woman in Rwandan genocide

Rwanda's former minister for family and women affairs has become the first woman to be convicted by a UN court of war crimes, including genocide and rape, during the 1994 massacres there.

Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 65, and her son, Arsene Ntahobali, a former militia leader, were both found guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape.

Although Nyiramasuhuko was the only woman on trial for genocide before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), many other women have been convicted of genocide in Rwanda, including two nuns who were found guilty by a court in Belgium of participating in the war crimes, the BBC reports.

About 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, were killed in 1994 in the violence.

The court found that the mother and son helped to abduct hundreds of ethnic Tutsis who were assaulted, raped and killed in her home region of Butare, the AP reports.

The government of which Mrs Nyiramasuhuko was a member reportedly dismissed the most senior district official — a man who resisted orders to carry out the massacres there. He has never been seen again.

According to the BBC:

When he was replaced, the massacres began and militias were flown in from Kigali to assist.

The former minister is accused of requesting military assistance to proceed with the massacres in her home commune.

The prosecution says along with her son she often forced people to undress completely before loading them onto trucks and taking them to their deaths.

Nyiramasuhuko was arrested in 1997 in Nairobi, Kenya, and taken to the U.N. court in Tanzania to await trial.