Rwanda Genocide Mastermind Jailed.
Former senior defence official Theoneste Bagosora has been convicted of instigating Rwanda's 1994 genocide and sentenced to life in prison.
Bagosora and two co-defendants were found by a UN tribunal to have led a committee that plotted the massacre of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
It is the first time the Rwanda tribunal has convicted anyone of organising the killings.
More than 800,0
More..00 people were killed in Rwanda's genocide.
Along with Bagosora, former military commanders Anatole Nsegiyumva and Alloys Ntabakuze were also found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and given life sentences.
6 April: Rwandan Hutu President Habyarimana killed when plane shot down
April-July: An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed
July: Tutsi-led rebel movement RPF captures Rwanda's capital Kigali
July: Two million Hutus flee to Zaire, now DR Congo
Bagosora, 67, and the two senior military officers were found to have organised, trained and armed the Interahamwe militia, which was responsible for most of the killing.
They were also responsible for drawing up a list of Tutsis and moderate Hutus who opposed their vision of an ethnically pure Rwanda.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in Tanzania, rejected the defence's argument that the killing was not organised, and therefore not genocide.
Bagosora's lawyer, Raphael Constant, said his client would appeal against the verdict.
Brigadier Gratien Kabiligi, the former chief of military operations, who was on trial with Bagosora and the two other men, was cleared of all charges and ordered to be released from custody immediately.
In another verdict on Thursday, the tribunal sentenced Protais Zigiranyirazo, 57, to 20 years in jail for his part in the genocide.
Mr Zigiranyirazo, a brother-in-law of former President Juvenal Habyarimana, was accused of ordering Hutus to kill 48 people in two incidents.
'Principal enemy'
The sentences will be welcomed by the government in Rwanda, which has come to regard the tribunal as a key part of the process of justice and reconciliation, says the BBC's Peter Greste.
Bagosora has been in custody since 1996, when he was arrested in Cameroon.
Prosecutors said Bagosora assumed control of military and political affairs in Rwanda when President Habyarimana's plane was shot down in 1994 - the catalyst for the genocide.
However, the indictment alleges that he set out to "prepare the apocalypse" as far back as 1990.
BAGOSORA TRIAL
Theoneste Bagosora on trial with three others
409 trial days
30,000 pages of transcripts
242 witnesses heard
1,600 exhibits
300 written decisions
Most material translated into French, English and Kinyarwanda
Profile: Col Theoneste Bagosora
The following year, Bagosora helped draft a document circulated within the army that described Tutsis as "the principal enemy".
Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda at the time, described Mr Bagosora as the "kingpin" behind the genocide.
Gen Dallaire wrote in his memoirs that Bagosora was a "known extremist" who "controlled - as well as anyone could - the genocidal militia".
Bagosora introduced militia leaders to Gen Dallaire when the UN commander thought it might help save lives to meet them.
After talking to the militia leaders, one of whom had blood stains on his shirt, Gen Dallaire wrote that he felt he had "shaken hands with the devil".
At their last meeting on Rwandan soil, in 1994, Bagosora said the next time he saw the Canadian general, he would kill him.
In fact, the next time they saw each other in person was in tribunal's courtroom when Gen Dallaire testified for the prosecution against Bagosora.
The trial, which began in 2002, was expected to last two years.
The tribunal, which has made 33 convictions and five acquittals, due to wind up next year.
The effects of the genocide are still being felt in the region, in particular across the border in DR Congo.
Some of the Hutu militias involved in the genocide fled to DR Congo, where Tutsi rebels, allegedly with some Rwandan backing, refuse to lay down their arms, saying they are being attacked by the Hutu fighters.
Some 300,000 people have fled their homes in DR Congo this year because of this conflict. Less..
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Added: Dec 18 2008 In: news_politics
Recorded on: Dec 18 2008
By: barnesy Premium 
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