ROBERT HOLLOWAY, United Nations | Friday
SIX years after the genocide in Rwanda ended, more than 4450 children – including 450 who have been formally cleared of any involvement in the genocide courts – are among the 123000 people languishing in prisons, many without charge, says a UN human rights report.
Michel Moussalli, special representative of the Commission on Human Rights, said Rwanda’s judiciary, which was practically destroyed in the genocide, was simply unable to handle the caseload.
His report noted positive developments, including a halt to the execution of death sentences in April 1998, and “a series of bold moves” by the goverment to tackle the crisis in Rwanda’s prisons.
But, it said, “it is hard to comprehend that approximately 123000 detainees are still crowded into jails and communal detention centres six years into the transition period”.
“The involvement of children was one of the most shocking aspects of the genocide,” he went on. “Some killers were as young as 10 years of age, and while some were influenced by adults, others acted alone and even directed other killers.”
“Most of the detained children were over 14 at the time of the genocide, but several hundred were younger,” the report said.
Since the legal age of responsibility in Rwanda is 14, the latter group were illegally held, but “there is opposition to their unconditional release” and only 196 children were freed last year.
Moussalli said he was “greatly concerned by the food crisis in some prisons and the resulting deaths of many prisoners.”
In Gitarama central prison, only 3000 of more than 8000 inmates were in a position to receive food from their families, he said. The others sometimes went without for four days.
Leading members of the regime who fled the country, such as former prime minister Jean Kambanda, have been indicted by the UN’s international tribunal for Rwanda, which sits in Arusha, northern Tanzania.
Kambanda, jailed for life in September 1998 after pleading guilty to six charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, is one of 45 people so far put on trial by the UN court. – AFP