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Some of the lawyers and human rights experts following the trials are hoping that the Akayesu conviction and Kambanda sentence will influence events in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the embattled regime of President Laurent Kabila is targeting ethnic Tutsi whom it accuses of supporting rebels in the east of the country. Some reports say that more than 20,000 Tutsi civilians have been killed, with women and girls singled out for special abuse. "This sends a very good message to those who engage themselves in war that women are not to be treated as spoils of war now," said women's rights advocate Betty Murungi after witnessing the Akayesu verdict. But for the thousands of women victims of the Congo war, that message may already be too late.END