MORE than 5000 people demonstrated in Kigali on Monday against the release by the UN war crimes tribunal on procedural grounds of a top former official accused of genocide. The demonstrators, responding to a call by associations of genocide survivors, accused the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of “laxity” in ordering the release of Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza on November 3. Hundreds of placards and banners called for Barayagwiza to be extradited to Rwanda. Barayagwiza was released on the basis that the prosecution had not informed him of the charges against him or extradited him from Cameroon in time. The suspect, who was foreign ministry director of political affairs and also a member of the steering committee of the Mille Collines “hate radio” station during the killings, is accused of being one of the architects of the slaughter of up to 800000 Tutsis and moderates of the Hutu majority.