THE HAGUE, Netherlands: A Dutch court yesterday convicted a Rwanda-born Dutch woman of inciting genocide in Rwanda’s 1994 mass murders of ethnic Tutsis by members of the Hutu tribe — the first conviction of a Dutch citizen for the crime.
The Hague District Court sentenced Yvonne Basebya, 66, to six years and eight months in prison for her role, the maximum available prison term at the time of the crimes.
The judges said they imposed the maximum sentence, “in the realization that this punishment does not do justice to the extremely serious nature of the proven criminal acts.” The 125-page written judgment said that she led meetings in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, of a radical Hutu party and sang a song that called for the murder of all Tutsis.
However, the court acquitted her of the more serious crimes of genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide, saying there was no evidence that she helped compile lists of people to be killed, or that she actually participated in the killings.
Basebya, wearing a pink sweater and earrings of small crosses at the end of long chains, sat silently throughout the hearing but tried to call out to supporters in the public gallery as police bundled her out of the courtroom.
Her lawyer said he would advise her to appeal against the conviction even though she was cleared of most charges.
“The picture that is now being painted is not at all in accordance with the complex nature of what happened,” said attorney Victor Koppe. “There were so many witnesses who knew her, who were there, who have said that this is absolutely not what was happening at the time.”
Koppe argued at trial that prosecution witnesses had deliberately lied as a way of getting their hands on Basebya’s property in Rwanda. Prosecutors said they would study the judgment before deciding whether to appeal the acquittals.
Spokesman Jirko Patist said he was pleased the court had accepted evidence of Basebya’s involvement.
“The suspect recruited youths and incited them to commit genocide, to commit murders,” he said. “The court called her an essential link in the genocide.”
Basebya emigrated to the Netherlands in 1998 and gained citizenship in 2004, before her crimes were known. She was prosecuted as a Dutch citizen, though war crimes can be prosecuted anywhere.
Three other Rwandans have been arrested in the Netherlands for their alleged role in their nation’s genocide.
Woman jailed for Rwanda genocide
Woman jailed for Rwanda genocide
China’s top diplomat to visit Somalia on Africa tour
- Stop in Mogadishu provides diplomatic boost after Israel formally recognized breakaway Somaliland
- Tour focusses on Beijing's strategic trade access across eastern and southern Africa
BEIJING: China’s top diplomat began his annual New Year tour of Africa on Wednesday, focusing on strategic trade access across eastern and southern Africa as Beijing seeks to secure key shipping routes and resource supply lines.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi will travel to Ethiopia, Africa’s fastest-growing large economy; Somalia, a Horn of Africa state offering access to key global shipping lanes; Tanzania, a logistics hub linking minerals-rich central Africa to the Indian Ocean; and Lesotho, a small southern African economy squeezed by US trade measures. His trip this year runs until January 12.
Beijing aims to highlight countries it views as model partners of President Xi Jinping’s flagship “Belt and Road” infrastructure program and to expand export markets, particularly in young, increasingly affluent economies such as Ethiopia, where the IMF forecasts growth of 7.2 percent this year.
China, the world’s largest bilateral lender, faces growing competition from the European Union to finance African infrastructure, as countries hit by pandemic-era debt strains now seek investment over loans.
“The real litmus test for 2026 isn’t just the arrival of Chinese investment, but the ‘Africanization’ of that investment. As Wang Yi visits hubs like Ethiopia and Tanzania, the conversation must move beyond just building roads to building factories,” said Judith Mwai, policy analyst at Development Reimagined, an Africa-focussed consultancy.
“For African leaders, this tour is an opportunity to demand that China’s ‘small yet beautiful’ projects specifically target our industrial gaps, turning African raw materials into finished products on African soil, rather than just facilitating their exit,” she added.
On his start-of-year trip in 2025, Wang visited Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad and Nigeria.
His visit to Somalia will be the first by a Chinese foreign minister since the 1980s and is expected to provide Mogadishu with a diplomatic boost after Israel became the first country to formally recognize the breakaway Republic of Somaliland, a northern region that declared itself independent in 1991.
Beijing, which reiterated its support for Somalia after the Israeli announcement in December, is keen to reinforce its influence around the Gulf of Aden, the entrance to the Red Sea and a vital corridor for Chinese trade transiting the Suez Canal to Europe.
Further south, Tanzania is central to Beijing’s plan to secure access to Africa’s vast copper deposits. Chinese firms are refurbishing the Tazara Railway that runs through the country into Zambia. Li Qiang made a landmark trip to Zambia in November, the first visit by a Chinese premier in 28 years.
The railway is widely seen as a counterweight to the US and European Union-backed Lobito Corridor, which connects Zambia to Atlantic ports via Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
By visiting the southern African kingdom of Lesotho, Wang aims to highlight Beijing’s push to position itself as a champion of free trade. Last year, China offered tariff-free market access to its $19 trillion economy for the world’s poorest nations, fulfilling a pledge by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 2024 China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing.
Lesotho, one of the world’s poorest nations with a gross domestic product of just over $2 billion, was among the countries hardest hit by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs last year, facing duties of up to 50 percent on its exports to the United States.
