A former Rwandan women's minister has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in the genocide and the rape of Tutsi women and girls. Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 65, is the first woman convicted by the UN-backed tribunal for the Rwanda genocide. She was found guilty, along with her son and four other former officials, after a 10-year trial. Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the 1994 massacres. Nyiramasuhuko, who was family and women's empowerment minister, was accused of ordering and assisting in the massacres in her home district of Butare in southern Rwanda. The prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accused her of taking part in the government decision to create militias throughout the country. Their mission was to wipe out the Tutsi population as fast as possible.