Mother pleased Rwandan killer not sentenced to death

The mother of a New Zealand woman murdered by a Rwandan rebel says she is pleased her daughter's killer has escaped the death penalty.

Jean Paul Bizimana was a member of an ethnic Hutu militia that hacked to death New Zealanders Rhonda Avis, 27, and Michelle Strathern, 26, four Britons, two Americans and a local game ranger in 1999 as they tracked rare mountain gorillas in southwest Uganda's Bwindi Forest.

Pauline Jackson, mother of Rhonda Avis, said yesterday that she was pleased Bizimana had received a 15-year jail sentence and she hoped he could turn his life around.

For her family, closure meant forgiving and letting go, which they had done a long time ago.

"At the end of the day I think really there are no winners ," she told National Radio.

"Rhonda was part of our family, always will be and we have to move forward with a positive spirit."

Ms Jackson said there were still three men waiting to be sentenced for their involvement in the killings but the family did not want revenge.

High Court judge John Bosco Katutsi passed the sentence after Bizimana appealed for leniency.

"My Lord, I pray for lenience because I have a family to look after," Bizimana said in court, asking that he not be condemned to death.

"Those you killed also had families," Katutsi responded sharply.

"These people were killed in cold blood and you were part of the gang ... The deceased came to Uganda for pleasure, and they went back in coffins."

The eight murdered foreigners had been part of a group of about 20 tourists who visited Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, near the Rwandan border, to watch mountain gorillas.

The other tourists managed to escape from the murderers and were rescued by Ugandan Army and police rescue teams from various parts of the forest.

During his trial, Bizimana confessed that he was part of the group which murdered the tourists but said he did not participate in the killings.

Three other men were arrested in March 2003 in connection with the killings, and have been sent to the United States to stand trial for the deaths of the two Americans.

Authorities say the rebels specifically targeted English-speaking people in a bid to weaken US and British support for the new Rwandan government.

The other victims, most in their 20s, were American couple Rob Haubner and Susan Miller; Britons Martin Friend, Steven Robert, Mark Lindgren and Joanne Cotton, as well as Ugandan warden Ross Wagaba.

- NZPA