Rwandan Jail For Genocide Convicts 

Rwandan government and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), a  UN –backed tribunal, have  signed  a deal that could see convicts found guilty of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda  serving their  jail terms  in the country’s local prisons.  

The agreement ends three years of negotiations between Rwanda's government and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The deal came after an inspection by the ICTR, which found Rwandan prisons meeting the international standards. 

A mile stone  

ICTR registrar Adama Dieng said the accord was a milestone in relations between Rwanda and the ICTR.  

Rwanda has long been pushing for genocide convicts to serve their sentences at home where their crimes were committed.  

In this vein, Rwanda last year abolished the death penalty so countries that object to capital punishment are able to extradite genocide suspects directly to Rwanda to face justice.  

Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Muligande, who attended the signing ceremony, says the government has requested that the ICTR hand over all its archives at the end of its mandate in 2010.  

Anger  

Meanwhile, Rwandan MPs have expressed anger over the arrest warrants recently issued by Spanish judge Fernando Andreu for 40 Rwandan army officers on genocide charges. 

Thirty of 56 prisoners detained by the tribunal in Tanzania have also protested the deal, saying they fear torture or death.  

Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the 1994 genocide. 

The ICTR was set up in the Tanzanian town of Arusha in 1997 to try the most high-profile genocide cases.

 

 

BBC/AOA/Qasim