The UN Tribunal for Rwanda has handed life sentences to two senior members of the ruling political party in the country at the time of the 1994 genocide.

The sentences were imposed upon Matthieu Ngirumpatse and Edouard Karemera, for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Ngirumpatse was the chairman of Rwanda's then-ruling National Revolutionary Movement for Development (NRMD) party and Karemera was his deputy when the genocide took place.

They were also charged for not having prevented or denounced crimes committed in 1994 by the party's youth wing militia, the Interahamwe.

The tribunal found that the two men were part of a "joint criminal enterprise" aimed at exterminating Tutsis, with Judge Denis Byron commenting,

"After considering the gravity of the crimes for which Ngirumpatse has been found guilty as well as all the attenuating and aggravating circumstances, the court has the discretion to impose a single sentence and has decided to do that."

The ruling also found that it was with Ngirumpatse’s approval that arms were delivered to the Interahamwe and stated,

"At that point in the genocide it could be assumed the weapons were going to be used to kill Tutsis."

"The court concludes that the rapes and the sexual crimes carried out on Tutsi girls and women by soldiers and militia, including the Interahamwe, are a natural and predictable consequence of the joint criminal enterprise seeking to destroy the Tutsi ethnic group,"