RWANDA: Release of suspects in the 1994 genocide angers survivors

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KIGALI, 9 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Rwandan genocide survivors issued on Monday a collective complaint to the government about its decision on 29 July to release tens of thousands of inmates, many of whom had confessed to taking part in the 1994 genocide.

"Their release will only serve to weaken the Gacaca courts as survivors will find these courts irrelevant," Ibuka, an umbrella organisation for Rwandan genocide survivors, said in a communique.

The Gacaca courts were set up in 2002 to bring to trial many of the genocide suspects.

The government released around 36,000 prisoners in the first week of August. It did so in part because the justice system has not been able to cope with over 80,000 prison inmates. Many have been incarcerated for most of the 10 years since the genocide occurred. So far, few have been brought to trial.

Rwanda's chief prosecutor, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, has said the prisoner release is not an amnesty. Those who confessed to taking part in the killing of 937,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in 1994 would still go before the Gacaca courts.

However, Ibuka said genocide survivors viewed the people released as rapists, key planners of genocide and extremists who are likely to escape justice.

"They pose a serious security threat to the survivors," Ibuka said.

[Institute for Security Studies: The Gacaca Process: Eradicating the culture of impunity in Rwanda? ]

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