Joseph Nzirorera (1950 - 1 July 2010) was a Rwandan politician and accused

génocidaires Génocidaires (, 'those who commit genocide') are Rwandans who are guilty of genocide due to their involvement in the mass killings which were perpetrated in Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 Rwandans, primarily Tutsis and ...

who was arrested by the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nation ...

(ICTR) for his role in the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed H ...

Background

Nzirorera was born in 1950 in Busogo, Ruhengeri Prefecture. He received a degree in civil engineering from the University of Butare in 1975.

Career

Nzirorema served as national secretary of the

National Revolutionary Movement for Development The National Revolutionary Movement for Development (french: Mouvement révolutionaire national pour le développement, MRND) was the ruling political party of Rwanda from 1975 to 1994 under President Juvénal Habyarimana. From 1978 to 1991, the ...

(MRND) and as speaker of the Rwandan Parliament. He also served as Minister of Industry, Mines and Handicraft. Nzirorera was a member of the Akazu, an elite circle of Hutu extremists close to President

Juvénal Habyarimana Juvénal Habyarimana (, ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed ''Kinani'', a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible". An ethn ...

and First Lady Agathe Habyarimana.

Arrest and legal proceedings

Nzirorera was arrested by the

in July 1998. In a joint trial with Édouard Karemera and Mathieu Ngirumpatse, Nzirorera was accused of conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, genocide, complicity in genocide, as well as crimes against humanity. In 2003, he was described by expert witness Nkiko Nsengimana as the "leader of the

Interahamwe The Interahamwe ( or ) is a Hutu paramilitary organization active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The Interahamwe was formed around 1990 as the youth wing of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND ...

". In 2004, he was accused of having asked the Interahamwe to kill a

Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic ...

child in Busogo, Ruhengeri Prefecture in April 1994.

Death

On 1 July 2010, Nzirorera died at the age of 59 while awaiting trial.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nzirorera, Joseph 1950 births 2010 deaths National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development politicians Hutu people Rwandan genocide perpetrators Rwandan people who died in prison custody Government ministers of Rwanda Members of the Parliament of Rwanda 20th-century Rwandan politicians People indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda