Claver Berinkindi (in back row) currently serving a life setence in Sweden
Six survivors of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi will today receive compensation paid by genocide convict Claver Berinkindi currently serving a life sentence in Sweden.
On 15th February 2017, the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm, Sweden, upheld life sentence imposed on Berinkindi, now 61 years old. He was found guilty of murder, incitement to murder, attempted murder and abduction.
He killed Tutsi who had taken refuge in the Nyamure hills and in the Muyira primary school in the former prefecture of Butare, now Nyanza district – Southern province.
Berinkindi also played a leading role in several massacres and attacks against the Tutsi in Butare.
In this trial, courts in Sweden also awarded damages to 14 genocide survivors.
“The lawyer who represented six of the 14 genocide survivors has today brought compensation that he will hand to survivors this afternoon,” Naphtali Ahishakiye, Executive Secretary of Ibuka, the umbrella for the Genocide survivors’ associations told KT Press on Wednesday.
Ahishakiye said, the compensation is worth Rwf 1-2 million per person.
“It is little money but for us(Ibuka), this gesture is just a symbol because you cannot have enough money to compensate for human beings, the loved ones that were massacred,” said Ahishakiye.
Berinkindi was born in 1955 in Rwanda. He left the country during the genocide and came to Sweden in 2002, applying for refugee status. He obtained Swedish citizenship in 2012. He was arrested in 2014, in Stockholm.
He is known for having strong ties with Interahamwa militia. He led attacks on a municipal building at Muyira and a nearby school where he killed thousands.
According to the file, some of the victims were buried alive, others killed with guns, spears, clubs and machetes.
Claver Berinkindi is the second Rwandan to be sentenced to life by a Swedish court for role in the Genocide committed against the Tutsi after Stanisilas Mbanenande who had been convicted in 2013. The latter had massacred Tutsi in the former prefecture of Kibuye.
