Published: 9:34PM Saturday November 21, 2009
Source: Reuters
Source: Human skulls from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
Survivor groups from Rwanda's 1994 genocide say they may stop
sending witnesses to the UN tribunal in Tanzania, in protest at the
court's recent acquittals of two genocide suspects.
The groups, who provide many of the witnesses for the trials, say
they will not cooperate unless the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda (ICTR) reverses its decision to release Hormisdas
Nsengimana and Protais Zigiranyirazo.
"The ICTR should sit down and revise their decision ... if there
are no other positive decisions taken, the relationship is cut
off," Freddy Mutanguha, general secretary of IBUKA, an umbrella
group for survivor organisations told Reuters at a protest in
Kigali.
The ICTR has convicted 39 of 47 cases heard.
It released Nsengimana this week saying it did not have enough
evidence to convict the Catholic pastor of war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
The Tanzania-based court also freed Zigiranyirazo citing serious
factual and legal errors.
Egide Kayinamura, 21, whose whole family was killed during Rwanda's
100-day massacre in 1994, was one of around 200 protestors who
marched to the ICTR branch in Rwanda's capital late on
Friday.
"Personally I feel very very sad because of the results. we don't
accept the decisions. We feel very sad that they let those people
free," Kayinamura said.
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