RWANDA: A Rwandan rebel was yesterday convicted of murdering eight tourists and a guide on a trekking expedition to observe gorillas in Uganda in 1999.
Jean-Paul Bizimana (31), also known as Xavier Van-Ndame, is due to be sentenced on Friday, and could face the death penalty.
He was among Hutu guerrillas who abducted 14 tourists and their guide from a camp in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.
They hacked their nine victims to death with machetes amid the dense jungle which is home to about half the world's remaining Mountain Gorillas. The region was made famous by the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist.
Three other rebels were arrested in March 2003 in connection with the killings, and have been sent to the US to stand trial for the deaths of the two American victims.
High Court Judge John Bosco Katutsi said: "Members of the gang shared a common purpose of attacking the victims. Each of the members of the gang is guilty of murder.
"This man was a member of that gang, and he is convicted accordingly."
However, defence lawyer Norris Maranga said he would appeal the verdict. "Justice has been made at this level, but we are not satisfied. Simply being part of the gang does not mean he carried out the killings," he said.
Prosecutors maintain that Bizimana and other suspects still at large led a group of 100 members of Rwanda's notorious Interahamwe militia in kidnapping the tourists.
The Interahamwe played a key role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were massacred. After the genocide, the Hutu militia fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo. From there they crossed into Uganda to stage the attacks in Bwindi, home to about 300 gorillas.
The Kampala court heard the tourists were preparing to trek into the forest for a day to observe the rare primates when a ragtag collection of rebels stormed their camp.
The victims were Americans Rob Haubner and his wife, Susan Miller; Rhonda Avis (27), and Michelle Strathern (26), from New Zealand; Britons Steven Robert (27), Martin Friend (24), and Mark Lindgren (23), and Joanne Cotton, a driver for the London-based tour operation that organised the trip.
Their Ugandan guide, Ross Wagaba, died after being set alight during the attack.