Rwanda singer sentenced to prison

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A U.N. tribunal Tuesday convicted a popular singer for inciting the murder of Tutsis during Rwanda's 1994 mass killings and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

Simon Bikindi, 54, was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda of using his songs and speeches to provoke the genocidal bloodshed, the United Nations said in a news release issued in New York.

Prosecutors charged Bikindi also was responsible for specific attacks and killings in Gisenyi prefecture carried out by the Hutu-dominated rebel group known as the Interahamwe, who included some members of Bikindi's Irindiro ballet troupe.

Bikindi, who also is an official in his country's Ministry of Youth and Sports, was acquitted on charges of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide, complicity in genocide, and murder and persecution as crimes against humanity.

More than 800,000 people were massacred, mostly by machete, for being ethnic Tutsis or Hutu moderates during a period of less than 100 days starting in April 1994.