Web pages about "Rwanda"

Rwanda abolishes death penalty

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:14:07 +0000

Rwanda has become the latest country to abolish the death penalty, accelerating the worldwide trend towards ending capital punishment.

It is the first country in Africa's Great Lakes region to call a halt to executions and the 100th country worldwide to abolish the death penalty in law. Another 30 countries are abolitionist in practice. Fourteen countries in Africa, including Rwanda, are now abolitionist for all crimes and a further 18 are abolitionist in practice.

It is hoped that Rwanda's move will spark a pattern towards abolishing the death penalty in Central Africa. There are encouraging signs from Burundi, where a revised version of the Penal Code, currently pending promulgation, has excluded the death penalty as punishment for all crimes.

The last death sentences were imposed in Rwanda in 2003. The last executions took place in 1998, when 22 people found guilty of genocide-related crimes were executed. Rwanda currently holds approximately 600 prisoners on death row, whose sentences are being commuted following this legislation.

The continued existence of the death penalty constituted one of the main obstacles preventing the transfer of detainees held by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), or indicted genocide suspects living abroad, to Rwanda's national jurisdiction.

Other obstacles have been the capability of the Rwandan justice system to provide fair trials as well as additional concerns regarding its independence, impartiality and transparency. The abolition of the death penalty is a step forward.

Amnesty International now calls on the Rwandan government to co-sponsor the resolution on a global moratorium on executions that will be introduced at the United Nations General Assembly this October, and to encourage other countries in the region to support the resolution.

Press Freedom: Journalists in need of protection

Wed, 03 May 2006 17:45:57 +0100

Since the beginning of the war in Iraq in March 2003, more journalists have been killed in that country than anywhere else in the world. The situation faced by journalists attempting to cover the events in that country highlight the need for greater international efforts to protect journalists in conflict situations.

Journalists fulfil a special role in conflict situations, providing details of incidents that parties to the conflict would sometimes prefer remained unknown by the general public.

In the first year of the conflict, journalists were primarily killed by US or Iraqi forces, usually reported as having been caught in the crossfire or accidentally shot, though journalists' organisations have charged that some of the attacks looked like deliberate targeting. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said on 8 March 2006, the third anniversary of the US attack on Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, that more than 100 journalists and media staff have lost their lives.

“...In many of these cases we still do not have concrete answers to hard questions about who is responsible and what happened,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary.

In a recent case, the IFJ reports that Mahmoud Za'al, 35, a cameraman and reporter for the Iraqi television station Baghdad TV was shot on 24 January 2006 in Ramadi, while working on a social documentary. According to local reports, Mahmoud Za’al was allegedly shot in a cross-fire between US forces and insurgents.

Since 2004, however, both local and international journalists have increasingly been targeted by armed groups as part of their campaigns. Many local journalists are targeted because they work for foreign media and are accused of collaboration, while foreign journalists have been kidnapped and murdered in an attempt to put pressure on the foreign troops in the country.

Female journalists are among those targeted by armed groups. In February, a well-known correspondent for Al-Arabiya television and two members of her crew in Iraq were kidnapped and killed. Police found the bodies of reporter Atwar Bahjat, her cameraman Adnan Khairallah and soundman Khaled Mohsen on the outskirts of Samarra.

The IFJ has been campaigning for a similar level of protection as granted to humanitarian workers and UN staff in August 2003 to be extended to journalists in conflict situations. The organisation presented text for a suggested resolution of the Security Council to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, at the World Electronic Media Forum during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisian, 16 November, 2005.

Amnesty International (AI) agrees that international measures must be put in place to protect journalists in conflict. AI calls on the incoming members of the Security Council to adopt measures that seek to prevent these attacks and hold those who carry them out accountable for their actions.

However, it is not just in conflict situations that journalists need protection. Across the world, in a range of different situations, journalists are attacked, imprisoned and forced into self-censorship by repressive governments. The common element in all of these is the unwillingness of some governments to allow alternative voices to emerge and, in many cases, a fear that journalists will expose abuses they have tried to keep quiet.

In Uzbekistan, journalists who have tried to publicise the killings in Andizhan last May have been threatened, assaulted, detained and forcibly confined to their homes. The "war on terror" is used as a pretext for tightening restrictions on freedom of expression. The situation has become so bad that, following the closure of several independent foreign media outlets, the BBC closed its Uzbekistan office last October due to the increased harassment of its staff by the authorities.

The "war on terror" has also been invoked in Pakistan to restrict journalists. Journalists have been denied permission to cover events in the tribal areas of the country where the army is engaged in operations against those linked to al-Qa'ida and the Taleban. Across the country, journalists covering the "war on terror" have been harassed, arbitrarily arrested. Some have "disappeared" for some length of time.

In one such case, journalist Hayatullah Khan was abducted by armed men on his way to cover a protest rally in Mirali Bazaar, North Waziristan, against a missile attack four days earlier. He is now thought to be detained, possibly having been handed over to US agencies, but his detention has not been acknowledged and his whereabouts remain unknown.

In Colombia, the continuing armed conflict, which the government sometimes describes as a "fight against terrorism", has, in some cases been used as a pretext to intimidate journalists who, along with trade unionists and social activists, are targeted by both army-backed paramilitaries and the armed opposition groups.

Members of the security forces and government officials have sought to stigmatize some journalists who expose human rights violations by associating them with the armed opposition groups, thus placing them at risk of attack by paramilitary forces. They are under particular threat in the run-up to the Presidential elections on 28 May.

In Lebanon, following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in February 2005 and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian troops, several prominent journalists who had spoken out against Syrian practices were killed or seriously injured by bombs placed under their cars. Samir Qasir and Gibran Tueni MP, a senior journalist with and the editor of the daily al-Nahar respectively, were killed in June and December 2005. May Chidiac, a presenter with LBC television, lost an arm and a leg in a bomb attack against her in September 2005.

Journalists in Kenya have also found themselves targeted in a pattern of increased intimidation and harassment by the government. In March this year, the Information and Communications Minister Mutahi Kagwe and Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua warned the media of stern government action if the persisted in what was described as "misreporting and misrepresentation".

In one of a series of incidents, two groups of hooded armed people with gas masks staged simultaneous raids early on 2 March on the editorial offices of the Kenya Television Network and the Standard Group's printing press in Nairobi. They disabled broadcasting equipment, burnt thousands of copies of newspapers and removed computer equipment.

States have a duty to protect journalists and not to persecute them in an effort to control the free flow of information. A free media is not only beneficial, but necessary in a free society. By exposing human rights abuses and giving voice to marginalised parts of the community, the media can at its best encourage the proper application of justice and stimulate debates that can defuse situations that might otherwise lead to conflict. When faced with unjust restrictions and the threat of attack, self-censorship in the media can have the opposite effect, aiding the covering up of abuses and fostering frustration in marginalised communities.

International recognition of the importance of journalists and the need for them to work free from unjust restrictions and the threat of violence will help to put pressure on those states who seek to control the media. Journalism matters and it is time for those who recognise the importance of a free media to try to change the minds of those who do not.

Other countries:
Rwanda
Restrictions on the freedom of the press remain in force, belying the government's claims that it is building an open society. Journalists who voice concern or criticize the state authorities are intimidated into silence or forced into self-censorship. The climate of impunity is perpetuated by the lack of substantive measures to bring to justice perpetrators of past human rights violations against journalists, including physical attacks, unlawful detention, intimidation and harassment.

Cuba
The government retains complete control over all media outlets and private ownership of press, radio, television and other means of communication is prohibited by law. Independent journalists face intimidation, harassment and imprisonment for their work. There are currently 72 prisoners of conscience on the island, 14 of whom are journalists.

Bangladesh
Several journalists engaged in defending human rights have had their fingers or hands deliberately damaged so they can no longer hold a pen. The attacks form part of a situation in which hundreds of human rights defenders have received death threats and been physically attacked. Successive governments have consistently failed to protect individuals at risk, investigate the abuses committed against them and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Egypt
Restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly persist. A Bill introduced by President Mubarak in February 2004 that would abolish imprisonment for publishing offences has not been made law. In the meantime, journalists continued to be threatened, beaten, fined for libel or imprisoned because of their work. Crews and journalists of international TV channels were also stopped and detained for hours in the run-up to the May 2005 referendum on multi-candidate presidential elections in an apparent attempt to prevent them from reporting on demonstrations or gatherings related to the referendum.

Turkey
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which prohibits "public denigration of Turkishness, the Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey", violates the right to freedom of expression and is frequently used to prosecute journalists and others peacefully expressing their dissenting opinion. Amnesty International has been campaigning for the abolition of Article 301 in its entirety.

Rwanda - Amnesty International Report 2007

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:24:41 +0100

The government maintained tight control over all sections of civil society, whose work was conducted in a climate of fear and suspicion. Trials continued of people suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide. There were concerns about the fairness of some of the trials. Several thousand detainees were held in long-term detention without trial in harsh conditions. Six hundred people remained on death row.

Background

The international community continued to depict post-genocide Rwanda as a success story. However, the authorities failed to provide basic health care and education to communities which were excluded from local governance. Cross- and inter-ethnic tensions persisted in the country.

In November, diplomatic tensions between Kigali and Paris reached crisis point after a French judge issued international arrest warrants for nine close aides of Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Independent journalists under attack

Journalists were subjected to intimidation, harassment and violence. The authorities failed to conduct independent and impartial investigations into attacks or threats against journalists. The authorities repeatedly denied that there were restrictions on freedom of expression in Rwanda, accusing independent journalists of "unprofessionalism".

• Bonaventure Bizumuremyi, the news editor of Umuco, reportedly had his home in Kigali ransacked in January by four men armed with clubs and knives. Before this attack, Umuco had criticized the ruling party for ineptitude and for allegedly controlling the judiciary.

The judicial system remained compromised and regularly enforced laws that curtailed free expression.

• In August, the High Court upheld a suspended sentence of one year in prison and a fine imposed on Charles Kabonero, editor of Umuseso, for "public insult". In 2004, Umuseso had questioned the integrity of the parliamentary Deputy Speaker, Denis Polisi.

Human rights defenders

In June 2006, the National Commission for Human Rights released its 2005 annual report in Kinyarwanda. According to national newspapers, this report, which was supported by some Rwandan human rights organizations, showed a 95 per cent improvement in the human rights situation since 2004.

However, some human rights defenders said that their work was under intense scrutiny by the authorities, that freedom of expression remained severely controlled since the 2004 clampdown on human rights organizations, and that self-censorship was widespread.

At the end of 2006, parliament was working on a new bill to strengthen government control over the activities and publications of non-governmental organizations.

Genocide trials

Trials continued under the gacaca system - a community-based system of tribunals established in 2002 to try people suspected of crimes during the 1994 genocide. Concerns about the fairness of the gacaca system included a perceived lack of impartiality and reports that defendants were not allowed to defend themselves either during the information retrieval process prior to the trial or during the trial itself. In addition, the information-retrieval phase was reportedly controlled by grass-roots authorities (nyumbakumi) although the law assigned responsibility to the gacaca judges themselves.

Poorly qualified, ill-trained and corrupt gacaca judges in certain districts fuelled widespread distrust of the gacaca system.

• In Munyaga (Rwamagana district, East province) a judge reportedly visited people who had been summoned for questioning and asked them for money in return for an acquittal. In the same district, two people were sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment, despite doubts over their involvement in the genocide.

According to reports from local authorities and genocide survivors' associations, in the East province some genocide survivors were subject to intimidation, harassment and assault before testifying before a gacaca court.

• In November, at Rukumberi (Ngoma district, East province) Frédéric Musarira, a genocide survivor, was allegedly killed by a man who had recently been released from prison after confessing his involvement in the genocide. In retaliation, genocide survivors in the area reportedly killed at least eight people.

Rwandans fled the gacaca system to neighbouring countries throughout 2006. Some were afraid that the tribunals would expose their involvement in the genocide. Others fled out of fear of false accusations.

Approximately 20,000 Rwandan asylum-seekers fled from southern Rwanda to Burundi early in the year, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR. The common issues forcing them to flee were persecution by local authorities, drought conditions and gacaca court summonses.

In July, further groups of Rwandans fled from the East province to avoid the gacaca system, including 40 people from Munyaga, Rwamagana district, who entered Uganda.

Pre-trial detention

Several thousand detainees remained incarcerated on a long-term basis without trial. Approximately 48,000 detainees were awaiting trial for alleged participation in the genocide.

• Dominique Makeli, a former journalist for Radio Rwanda, remained in detention without trial after almost 12 years. The charges against him have repeatedly changed. The authorities' latest accusation was that in 1994 he had incited genocide in a programme for Radio Rwanda in 1994.

• Two Catholic nuns, Sisters Bénédicte Mukanyangezi and Bernadette Mukarusine, remained in detention without trial after more than 12 years.

Prison conditions

Approximately 69,000 people were reportedly held in prisons during 2006. All prisons were overpopulated with the exception of Mpanga Prison. For example, Gitarama prison reportedly held 7,477 detainees although its official capacity was 3,000.

Detention conditions remained extremely harsh and amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Underground cells were reported to exist in some prisons and detention centres.

• At least 50 people were reportedly held in harsh and insanitary conditions in an underground cellar in Gitarama prison for more than a year. These prisoners were seldom allowed to go outside.

Death penalty

Six hundred prisoners remained on death row. The last execution was carried out in 1998. In October, the political bureau of the ruling party strongly recommended abolishing the death penalty. The continued existence of the death penalty constituted one of the main obstacles preventing the transfer to Rwanda's national jurisdiction of detainees held by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) or indicted genocide suspects living abroad.

Investigations of genocide and war crimes

The Commission of Inquiry set up in April 2005 to investigate the alleged role of the French military in the genocide started work in April 2006.

In May, the Rwandan Prosecutor General compiled a new list of 93 genocide suspects said to be living abroad. Concerns were raised over the accuracy of this list, as some of those named had apparently died, or were not in the named country. Few foreign governments initiated judicial proceedings against alleged Rwandan genocide suspects residing, sometimes under false identities, in their countries.

In November, a French judge investigating the shooting down of former President Habyarimana's plane in 1994 issued international arrest warrants for nine high-ranking Rwandan officials. He also requested that the ICTR issue an indictment for President Paul Kagame's arrest for his involvement.

The investigation by a Spanish judge into the murder of Spanish nationals and other crimes committed between 1990 and 2002 in Rwanda was reportedly completed. The investigation focused on the direct involvement of 69 members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), some of whom were high-ranking figures in the military.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Trials of prominent genocide suspects continued before the ICTR, which held 56 detainees at the end of 2006. Nine trials, involving multiple and single defendants, were ongoing. Seven cases were concluded in 2006. Two detainees were acquitted and the others were sentenced to terms of imprisonment. One case was pending appeal. Eighteen suspects indicted by the ICTR were still at large.

The ICTR was mandated by the UN Security Council to complete all trials by the end of 2008. It ceased to issue indictments for individuals suspected of involvement in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Rwanda.

Since its inception, the ICTR has tried only members and supporters of the government in place in April 1994. It did not fully implement its mandate by investigating all war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 1994, notably those committed by the RPF.

Update: enforced disappearances

Augustin Cyiza, a prominent member of civil society, was reportedly a victim of enforced disappearance in 2003 during the run-up to elections. Rwandan officials denied knowledge of his whereabouts in 2005, but sources claimed he had been abducted and killed.

Léonard Hitimana, a member of the Transitional National Assembly, disappeared in April 2003. In April 2006, the President of the National Commission for Human Rights stated that the investigation into his case was confidential, and that results would be released in due course. The fate of Léonard Hitimana remained unknown.

Political prisoners

Pasteur Bizimungu, former President of Rwanda, and Charles Ntakirutinka were sentenced to 15 and 10 years' imprisonment respectively in 2005 on charges of inciting civil disobedience, associating with criminal elements and embezzlement of state funds. Both men had, prior to their arrest, launched a new political party, the Democratic Party for Renewal (Parti Démocratique de Renouveau, PDR-Ubuyanja). Many human rights observers considered that their prosecution was an attempt to eliminate political opposition. They were held at the Central Prison, Kigali.

AI country reports/visits

Statements

• Rwanda: Freedom of expression under attack (AI Index: AFR 47/002/2006)

• Rwanda: Reports of extrajudicial executions in Mulindi military detention centre must be independently investigated (AI Index: AFR 47/004/2006)

• Rwanda: Appeal to the UN Security Council to ensure that the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is fulfilled (AI Index: IOR 40/045/2006 )

Visit

AI delegates visited Rwanda in October.

Rwanda - Amnesty International Report 2008

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:38:21 +0100

To watch this video Flash Player 8 or higher is required. Get flash player.

var embedVid = new SWFObject('flashplayer.swf','video','257','229','8','#fff');
embedVid.addVariable('videoPath','');
embedVid.addParam("wmode","transparent");
embedVid.write("flashcontent");
Rwanda abolished the death penalty in 2007. Freedom of expression, association and movement continued to be restricted. The security services were implicated in human rights violations, including the use of excessive force and torture. Fair trial standards continued to be flouted, particularly in the community-based gacaca tribunals, whose powers to try genocide suspects were extended during the year. Tensions persisted between and within Rwanda's main ethnic groups.

Excessive use of force, torture and other ill-treatment

The security services, and in particular the police and Local Defence Forces (LDF), reportedly used unlawful and excessive force when arresting suspects. The LDF are an armed civilian force working alongside the national police.

In May, it was reported that François Rukeba, who had recently been extradited from Uganda to Rwanda, had been tortured. According to reports, he was severely beaten during the first days of his detention by the Rwandan security forces. In November, it was reported that the government would shortly submit the issue of ratification of the UN Convention against Torture to Parliament.

Freedom of expression

Press freedom

In 2007, Rwanda was ranked 181 out of 195 countries in terms of respect for press freedom by the USA-based organization, Freedom House. Harassment, threats, intimidation and violent attacks against journalists, in particular those working for non-state media, continued. The authorities failed to protect and uphold the rights of these journalists.

On 9 February, Jean Bosco Gasasira, the editor of Umuvigizi newspaper, was assaulted with iron bars by three unidentified men in the capital, Kigali. Jean Bosco Gasasira was rushed to hospital where he remained in intensive care for several days. He had published several articles in Umuvigizi newspaper that were critical of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the ruling political party. One article alleged nepotism within the RPF.
Also on 9 February, the government-controlled radio station, Radio Rwanda, reportedly broadcast remarks by the Director of Radio Rwanda and the President of the High Press Council threatening the independent newspaper Umuco. Accusing the newspaper of fomenting ethnic hatred, they compared it to the defunct newspaper Kangura, which incited hatred of Tutsi people before and during the 1994 genocide. Following this radio broadcast, Bonaventure Bizumureymi, the editor of Umuco, received telephone calls threatening him. The press is still viewed by some with fear since it played such an instrumental role in whipping up the genocide in 1994. In 2007, the government continued to accuse journalists critical of the authorities of inciting ethnic hatred in order to silence them.
In September, four government ministers, including the Ministers of Interior and of Communication, and two members of the security forces threatened independent journalists during a programme broadcast by Radio Rwanda and Télévision rwandaise (TVR) if they carried on criticizing the government. The Interior Minister allegedly said that the police should arrest any journalist who published a leaked official document and that the journalist should remain in detention until he revealed the source of the leak. In addition, these journalists were branded as "enemies" of the country. Journalists working for the newspaper Umuseso were particularly targeted. The government increasingly used criminal laws and sanctions to stifle free expression of opinion. Two draft laws, one related to the Press Law and one to the Criminal Code, which were being considered by Parliament at the end of 2007, contained provisions which would unduly restrict freedom of expression.

Human rights defenders

The work of human rights defenders was under intense scrutiny by the authorities.

In February, Congolese law professor Idesbald Byabuze Katabaruka was arrested and charged with "threatening state security" and "discrimination and sectarianism". He was in Kigali to teach a university law course. The public prosecutor issued the charges in relation to several public documents which Idesbald Byabuze Katabaruka had allegedly written or co-authored. They included an article, Alerte Rwanda (Rwanda Warning), which was highly critical of the RPF. About one month later, after international pressure, the charges against him were dropped and he was released from Kigali Central Prison.

Death penalty

In July, Rwanda abolished the death penalty, the first country in the Great Lakes region to do so. The retention of the death penalty constituted one of the main obstacles preventing the transfer of detainees held by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and indicted genocide suspects living abroad, to Rwanda's national jurisdiction.

Gacaca trials

Trials continued under the gacaca system - a community-based system of tribunals established in 2002 to try people suspected of crimes during the 1994 genocide. In March, a new gacaca law was enacted which substantially changed the previous 2004 law. Under the new law, the jurisdiction of gacaca tribunals was extended so that they could try categories of people, such as "notorious killers", who previously came under the jurisdiction of the national courts. The gacaca tribunals were also empowered to hand down life sentences. In addition, the number of judges (Inyangamugayo) required to sit on a gacaca tribunal was reduced from nine to seven in order to increase the number of sessions. Although the government's stated intention was to close down the gacaca courts as soon as possible, in early December the Secretary General of the gacaca jurisdictions announced that the gacaca tribunals would be extended into 2008. While the provisions of the 2007 law speeded up the gacaca trials, this was at the expense of the fairness and quality of the rulings. There were regular reports that fair trial guarantees were not being applied in the gacaca process, leading to miscarriages of justice.

François-Xavier Byuma, a prominent human rights defender, was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment in May for participating in weapons training during the 1994 genocide, after an unfair trial by the gacaca community court in Bilyogo, Kigali. The judge who presided over the trial had been under investigation by François-Xavier Byuma's NGO, Turengere Abana (Rwandan Association for the Protection and Promotion of the Child, l'Association Rwandaise pour la Protection et la Promotion de l'Enfant) for the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl. The judge's conflict of interest denied François-Xavier Byuma his right to a fair trial before an independent and impartial tribunal. Poorly qualified, ill-trained and corrupt gacaca judges in certain districts fuelled widespread distrust of the gacaca system. In December, the League for Human Rights in the Great Lakes Region (LDGL) reported that seven judges of the gacaca court of the Kibirizi sector, South Province, had been arrested in November for tampering with evidence. Rwandans continued to flee the gacaca system to neighbouring countries. Some were afraid that the tribunals would expose their involvement in the genocide. Others fled out of fear of false accusations.
Teachers and other staff from the University of Butare reportedly fled the country out of fear of being wrongly accused of involvement in the genocide. Rwandan sources also reported throughout the year that gacaca judges and witnesses (for the prosecution and the defence alike) had been threatened and in some cases killed.

Detention without trial

In October, during a parliamentary session, Rwandan senators raised concerns about illegal detentions. Several thousand detainees remained incarcerated on a long-term basis without trial.

Dominique Makeli, a former journalist for Radio Rwanda, remained in detention without trial after almost 13 years. The charges against him repeatedly changed. The authorities' latest accusation was that he had incited genocide in a programme for Radio Rwanda in 1994.
Two Catholic nuns, Sisters Bénédicte Mukanyangezi and Bernadette Mukarusine, were finally tried in July 2007 after more than 12 years in detention without trial. The gacaca court that took up their cases released them for lack of evidence.
Tatiana Mukakibibi, a former presenter and producer with Radio Rwanda, was acquitted of genocide charges by a gacaca court in the southern district of Ruhango on 6 November after 11 years in detention without trial.

Prison conditions

In early 2007, the government announced the provisional release of 8,000 detainees, many of whom had reportedly confessed to participation in the genocide. This was the third wave of mass releases since 2003 in an attempt to address prison overcrowding. Despite these releases, the prisons remain overcrowded. By July, there were 97,000 prison inmates. This figure dropped to 70,000 in September following an official instruction which allowed some detainees to carry out work of benefit to local communities, known as TIG (work of general interest), in camps outside the prisons. Prison conditions remained extremely harsh and amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Political prisoners

In April, Pasteur Bizimungu was transferred from prison to house arrest. Pasteur Bizimungu and Charles Ntakirutinka had been sentenced in 2005 to 15 and 10 years' imprisonment respectively on charges of inciting civil disobedience, associating with criminal elements and embezzlement of state funds. Both men had, prior to their arrest, launched a new political party, the Democratic Party for Renewal (Parti Démocratique de Renouveau, PDR-Ubuyanja). Many human rights observers considered that their prosecution was an attempt to eliminate political opposition. Charles Ntakiruntinka remained in Kigali's Central Prison.

Investigations of genocide and war crimes

In October, the Rwandan commission of inquiry to investigate the role of the French military in the genocide presented its report to President Kagame. The Spanish judicial authorities continued to investigate the murder of Spanish nationals and other crimes committed between 1990 and 2002 in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The investigation focused on the alleged direct involvement of 69 members of the RPF, some of whom were high-ranking figures in the military. Foreign governments, such as those of the UK, France, Canada and the Netherlands initiated judicial proceedings against alleged Rwandan genocide suspects residing, sometimes under false identities, in their countries.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Trials of prominent genocide suspects continued before the ICTR, which held 61 detainees at the end of 2007. Twenty-eight trials, involving multiple and single defendants, were ongoing. Eighteen suspects indicted by the ICTR were still at large. Since opening in 1996, the ICTR has rendered 32 definitive judgments. The ICTR was mandated by the UN Security Council to complete all trials by the end of 2008. In accordance with its completion strategy, the prosecutor proposed the transfer of three cases to European jurisdictions and five to Rwandan jurisdiction. Since its inception, the ICTR has tried only members and supporters of the government in place in April 1994. It did not fully implement its mandate by investigating all war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 1994, notably those committed by the RPF.

Enforced disappearances

Augustin Cyiza, a prominent member of civil society, and Léonard Hitimana, a member of the Transitional National Assembly, were reportedly victims of enforced disappearance in 2003. Since then, officials have denied knowledge of their whereabouts, and have carried out no rigorous investigations into their disappearances.

Amnesty International reports

Rwanda: Freedom of expression under attack (AFR 47/002/2007)
Rwanda: Give Dominique Makeli a trial or let him go (postcard) (AFR 47/006/2007)
Rwanda: Fear for safety/Legal concern: François Xavier Byuma (AFR 47/007/2007)
Rwanda: Abolition of the death penalty (AFR 47/010/2007)
Rwanda: Suspects must not be transferred to Rwandan courts for trial until it is demonstrated that trials will comply with international standards of justice (AFR 47/013/2007)
Rwanda: Genocide suspects must not be transferred until fair trial conditions met (AFR 47/014/2007)