A United Nations court has sentenced a former Rwandan interior minister to a 30-year jail sentence for tricking thousands of people to hide on a hill before they were killed during the country's 1994 genocide.

The Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said Callixte Kalimanzira, a close ally to the president and prime minister during the killing spree, was guilty of genocide and complicity to commit genocide.

In its 2005 indictment, the ICTR accused Kalimanzira, of encouraging thousands of Tutsi civilians to take refuge at Kabuye Hill in Ndora commune with promises of food and protection, only for Hutus then to kill them in his presence.

Kalimanzira, 54, who was also accused of seeking military and police reinforcements for the massacre, was arrested in 2005 and had entered a not guilty plea.

Recriminations

Hutus butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus during 100 days of slaughter in Rwanda fifteen years ago. 

Kalimanzira's sentencing raises the number of ICTR's judgements delivered to 38, six of which were acquittals.

The court had until the end of last year to complete all trials, and until 2010 to hear all appeals before winding up.

However, cases have spilt over and the ICTR says it is working hard to finish hearing evidence in all trials by the end of 2009.

There are still recriminations over the international community's inability to prevent or stop the genocide, and over who exactly was to blame.