Didier Bikorimana

BBC Great Lakes Service

Rwanda’s main genocide survivors’ organisation has welcomed the 20-year prison sentence handed down by a French court to a former governor from southern Rwanda.

The court in Paris found Laurent Bucyibaruta, 78, guilty of complicity in the 1994 genocide. He can appeal against the sentence.

During the trial which began in May, testimony was heard about how as governor of what was once Gikongoro province, Bucyibaruta encouraged tens of thousands of ethnic Tutsis to take refuge in the Murambi Technical School, where they were killed days later.

Egide Nkuranga, head of Ibuka - which means “Remember” in Kinyarwanda - told BBC Great Lakes the group welcomed the guilty verdict and was just happy “the trial even happened”.

French prosecutors and a number of organisations, including the French branch of Ibuka, brought the charges against Bucyibaruta.

The length of his sentence was secondary to the fact that he had been convicted, Mr Nkuranga said.

“We thought because of the charges against him that he might receive a life sentence, but there is no problem even with 20 years,” he said.

A memorial has been built where Murambi Technical School once stood. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days during the Rwandan genocide.

Bucyibaruta - the highest-ranking former Rwandan official to be tried by a French court - has lived in France since 1997. He is the fifth Rwandan to be convicted there.

Mr Nkuranga hopes other genocide suspects living in France will be tried one day “so we can receive justice”.