Deadlier than the male.

Lawyer and social worker Pauline Nyiramasuhuko was formerly the Rwandan Women's Minister. As the Hutus were slaughtering the Tutsis in other provinces, the Hutus were not doing it fast enough in her home district of Butare. So she took personal charge, taking her son along to help.

She is the first woman to be convicted of genocide by an international tribunal, disproving the myth that only men can shape horrible atrocities like the Rwandan genocide.

Her son was also convicted of organizing the massacres and serving as a militia leader, where he raped women. Both claimed that they were innocent of all charges. But the court found that the son, Arsène Shalom Ntahobali, staffed a roadblock which was ”the site of numerous beatings, rapes, and killings.”

According to the tribunal, Nyiramasuhuko, who was known simply as “Pauline,” ordered and assisted massacres in her home district of Butare. She ordered women and girls to be raped and killed after they had taken refuge in a local government office.

“Hoping to find safety and security, they instead found themselves subject to abductions, rapes, and murder. The evidence…paints a clear picture of unfathomable depravity and sadism,” said the presiding judge, according to the BBC.

From the NY Times: 

Butare, which had a wide mix of Hutu and Tutsi people, was the scene of much brutality. In their summary, which was streamed by video from the court, the tribunal judges cited the example of a massacre at the Mugombwa Church, which was filled with people seeking refuge from the killings.

Armed assailants attacked the church, bombarding it with grenades. “As those taking shelter escaped into the courtyard of the church, they were slaughtered. This two-day attack resulted in the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of Tutsis,” the summary said.

The government minister’s son, Arsène Shalom Ntahobali, who was in his early 20s and a student at the time, also was found guilty of helping to organize the massacres in Butare, where he had joined his mother and became a militia leader.

The court found that Mr. Ntahobali, together with militia and soldiers, had been stationed at one particular roadblock, near Hotel Ihuliro, that was “the site of numerous beatings, rapes and killings.”

...

The two went there “to abduct hundreds of Tutsis; many were physically assaulted, raped, abducted and taken away to various places in Butare, where they were killed,” the judge said.

“Both Nyiramasuhuko and Ntahobali ordered killings,” he said. “They also ordered rapes. Ntahobali further committed rapes, and Nyiramasuhuko aided and abetted rapes and is responsible as a superior.”

Lawyer and social worker Pauline