/ 24 March 1999

‘RELEASE RWANDA DETAINEES’

THE United Nations Commission on Human Rights urged the Rwandan government on Wednesday to free about 125000 people who are languishing in jail and at risk of contracting diseases. “The conditions of detention remain deplorable in Rwanda,” where tens of thousands of people are awaiting trial on charges of involvement in the 1994 genocide, special representative Michel Moussalli said in a report. Moussalli urged that prisoners who are ailing or aged should be released, as well as minors and those detainees who have already been imprisoned for the likely duration of their eventual sentences.