Source: BBC

A former Rwandan women's minister has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in the genocide and the rape of Tutsi women and girls.

Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 65, is the first woman convicted by the UN-backed tribunal for the Rwanda genocide.

She was found guilty, along with her son and four other former officials, AFP reports, after a 10-year trial.

Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the 1994 massacres.

Mrs Nyiramasuhuko was accused of ordering and assisting in the massacres in her home district of Butare in southern Rwanda.

The prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused her of taking part in the government decision to create militias throughout the country. Their mission was to wipe out the Tutsi population as fast as possible.

Along with her son, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, who was in his early 20s at the time, she was also accused of organising the kidnap and rape of Tutsi women and girls.

She had denied all the charges.

Butare was once home to a large mix of Hutu and Tutsi people, and there was some resistance there when the orders to carry out the massacres were given.

The government of which Mrs Nyiramasuhuko was a member dismissed the most senior district official - a man who opposed the genocide. He was never seen again.

When he was replaced, the massacres began and militias were flown in from the Rwandan capital Kigali to assist.

The former minister was accused of requesting military assistance to proceed with the massacres in her home commune.

The prosecution says along with her son she often forced people to undress completely before loading them on to trucks and taking them to their deaths.

BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says that although she was the only woman on trial for genocide before the ICTR, many other women have been convicted of genocide in Rwandan courts.

Two nuns were found guilty of participating in the genocide by a court in Belgium.

• Rwanda