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	Rwanda: Businessman jailed for church massacre by Panos / Pambazuka News Rwanda   Nov. 2010   The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced a Rwandan businessman to 30 years in jail for his part in the bulldozing of a church which killed around 2,000 ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.   The tribunal, backed by the United Nations, found Gaspard Kanyarukiga guilty of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. The ruling found that Kanyarukiga, an ethnic Hutu, assisted in encouraging the 2,000 Tutsis to take shelter in the Nyange church before calling for it to be demolished.   He is the second person to be convicted for the massacre. Around 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. Visit the related web page
	Top police face trial for human rights activist killing by Emmanuel Peuchot Agence France Presse (AFP) Democratic Republic of Congo   11 Nov. 2010   Kinshasa: — Eight police officers face trial by a military court on kidnap and murder charges after the death of a leading Democratic Republic of Congo rights activist, court officials said.   The national police special investigations section chief, Colonel Daniel Mukalay, is charged along with three majors and other ranking police officers for the murder of Floribert Chebeya, a dissident who was found dead in his car in June, the clerk of Kinshasa"s Gombe military court told AFP.   The clerk said that three of the accused, two majors and a warrant officer, were on the run and would be tried in absentia. The trial is due to begin on Friday, the clerk said.   Chebeya and his driver Fidele Bazana disappeared on June 1 after going to Kinshasa police headquarters where the president of the non-governmental organisation La Voix des Sans-Voix (VSV - The Voice of the Voiceless) had an appointment with police chief General John Numbi.   The meeting apparently never took place and Chebeya"s body was found tied up on the back seat of his car the following day. The body of his chauffeur has not been found.   Chebeya, 47, was repeatedly targeted by police since founding VSV in 1983, and he spent 10 weeks in prison in 1996 at the tail end of the regime of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.   After his death, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised Chebeya as a "champion of human rights", and demanded a transparent enquiry into his death.   According to an autopsy report, Chebeya died of a heart attack after suffering physical abuse. The injuries pointed to strangulation and blows, the autopsy found.   Chebeya"s VSV group has said that Numbi is the chief suspect in the death and has accused the government of "denial of justice" by placing the case with a military court which does not have jurisdiction to try the police chief. The court can only try officers from the rank of colonel down.   Only the highest military court can try the police chief, who has nevertheless been suspended from duty since the killing following a meeting of top defence officials presided over by President Joseph Kabila.   VSV says that leading business and political figures have promised that Numbi will be protected from prosecution in the affair.   A source linked to the presidency told AFP that Mukalay had admitted the killing but said he was acting on Numbi"s orders.   Lawyer Joseph Mukendi, speaking for some 30 defence lawyers representing the Chebaya and Bazana families and VSV as civil plaintiffs, told AFP, "We are going to seek the truth, go right to the end to ensure the prosecution of those who ordered the murder and those who carried it out."   In September, Chebeya"s widow and five children left Kinshasa to settle in Canada.   The court said the defendants were charged with kidnapping, murder, terrorism and criminal association, while the three on the run were also accused of desertion.
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