May 21, 1999
Web posted at: 9:43 a.m. EDT (1343 GMT)

ARUSHA, Tanzania (CNN) -- The United Nations tribunal on Rwanda on Friday convicted a provincial governor and a Rwandan businessman of genocide in connection with a series of mass killings in 1994.

Following a joint trial, governor Clement Kayishema and businessman Obed Ruzindana were convicted of orchestrating massacres in the Kibuye province of western Rwanda, where over 400,000 people died. Kayishema was convicted of four counts of genocide, Ruzindana of one count.

Judge William Sekule said, "Kayishema not only knew and failed to prevent those under his control from slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians, but he orchestrated and invariably led these bloody massacres.

"The trial chamber found that Ruzindana personally mutilated and killed individuals during attacks," Sekule told the court.

The 1994 genocide was organized by ethnic Hutu extremists and the Rwandan government of the time in an attempt to wipe out the country's minority Tutsis. An estimated 800,000 people were killed. The U.N. Rwanda tribunal has now convicted five people on charges of genocide, including the former prime minister.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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