A former Rwandan army major has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murdering 10 Belgian peacekeepers in the early days of the 1994 genocide.
However, the Belgian court acquitted Bernard Ntuyahaga, 55, of murdering then Rwandan PM Agathe Uwilingiyimana.
The murders, committed in front of Rwandan army officers, triggered the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers.
Belgium's prime minister told the court that had peacekeepers stayed, thousands of lives could have been saved.
Some 800,000 moderate Hutus and Tutsis were massacred by extremist Hutus in three months in 1994.
BBC World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle, who was in Rwanda at the time, says Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's statement may be designed to bring some closure to what has been a deeply controversial episode in Belgium and Rwanda.
International fallout
Prosecutors said Ntuyahaga took the peacekeepers from the residence of Mrs Uwilingiyimana, who they were trying to protect.
He then handed them over to fellow soldiers in a military camp in the capital, Kigali, where they were beaten to death, shot or slain with machetes.
Ntuyahaga can appeal against the verdict on procedural grounds but not on substance.
"Sooner or later the truth will triumph, I believe that. I remain patient and I keep faith, thank you," Ntuyahaga told the court moments before the jury retired to consider its guilty verdict.
Christine Dupont, the widow of Belgian peacekeeper Christophe Dupont, said before the verdict: "It's a very important day, a day we have been waiting for the last 13 years."
It is not the first time Rwandans have stood trial in Belgium over the genocide.
Two Catholic nuns, a university professor and a businessman were sentenced in 2001 to between 12 and 20 years' jail for aiding the mass murders.
Our correspondent says international political fall-out from the genocide continues.
Although no-one doubts that the extremist Hutu regime bears the overwhelming responsibility for the events in 1994, UN commanders and Western military analysts believe that the number of people killed could have been relatively minimal if the UN had maintained sufficient troops on the ground.
This week saw more reports that France was aware of the planned genocide but chose to continue co-operation with the Rwandan army that was going to perpetrate it.
France and Rwanda recently broke off diplomatic relations.
However, the Belgian court acquitted Bernard Ntuyahaga, 55, of murdering then Rwandan PM Agathe Uwilingiyimana.
The murders, committed in front of Rwandan army officers, triggered the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers.
Belgium's prime minister told the court that had peacekeepers stayed, thousands of lives could have been saved.
Some 800,000 moderate Hutus and Tutsis were massacred by extremist Hutus in three months in 1994.
BBC World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle, who was in Rwanda at the time, says Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's statement may be designed to bring some closure to what has been a deeply controversial episode in Belgium and Rwanda.
International fallout
Prosecutors said Ntuyahaga took the peacekeepers from the residence of Mrs Uwilingiyimana, who they were trying to protect.
He then handed them over to fellow soldiers in a military camp in the capital, Kigali, where they were beaten to death, shot or slain with machetes.
Ntuyahaga can appeal against the verdict on procedural grounds but not on substance.
"Sooner or later the truth will triumph, I believe that. I remain patient and I keep faith, thank you," Ntuyahaga told the court moments before the jury retired to consider its guilty verdict.
Christine Dupont, the widow of Belgian peacekeeper Christophe Dupont, said before the verdict: "It's a very important day, a day we have been waiting for the last 13 years."
It is not the first time Rwandans have stood trial in Belgium over the genocide.
Two Catholic nuns, a university professor and a businessman were sentenced in 2001 to between 12 and 20 years' jail for aiding the mass murders.
Our correspondent says international political fall-out from the genocide continues.
Although no-one doubts that the extremist Hutu regime bears the overwhelming responsibility for the events in 1994, UN commanders and Western military analysts believe that the number of people killed could have been relatively minimal if the UN had maintained sufficient troops on the ground.
This week saw more reports that France was aware of the planned genocide but chose to continue co-operation with the Rwandan army that was going to perpetrate it.
France and Rwanda recently broke off diplomatic relations.
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