(27 Jan 1998) T/I: 10:34:32
About 1 million people are believed to have died when the Hutu tribal people attempted the genocide of Tutsis, between April and July 1994, in the small central African nation of Rwanda. Three years on from the genocide, the Tutsi-led government is still trying to come to terms with the large mass slaughter of its people.
In Rwanda today there are almost 125,000 prisoners in jail awaiting trial on charges of genocide, and the prisons are bursting at the seams.
Limited governmental resources and a severe shortage of qualifed lawyers mean trials have been slow. A result of this is that many trials have been initiated without any legal representation for defendants.
In Kibungo prison, there are 2,794 genocidaire, as they are known, including 108 women. Out of this number just 47 have been tried and sentenced to date. While the majority await trial the conditions in which they are forced to live are appalling. Disease and violence are rife. Of those that have been sentenced, many are now awaiting appeal
appeal and are hoping for a presidential amnesty. Gerald Gahima, the Secretary General for the Ministry of Justice, has spoken in the past of releasing the sick and elderly as well as the younger children, but as for a large scale amnesty, he says that there is no chance of that
happening. He says those found guilty must pay for their action in 1994. He expects those sentenced to death to be executed in the near future.
SHOWS:
KIBUNGO TOWN, RWANDA 24/01
WS group of men in prison compound;
cu lock,
pullout to MS men behind bars;
cu prisoner's face;
PAN prison compound;
vs prisoners in crowded conditions;
prisoners have hair cut;
Interior sleeping quarters;
WS crowded sleeping quarters;
Door opened to reveal women's section;
Women followed by baby crawling;
baby's face PAN to child's face;
KIGALI
SOT Gerald Gahima, the Secretary General for the Ministry of Justice: "Really for the time being really have no plans for an amnesty at all. In fact public feeling in this country is still in favour of very harsh punishment for the people responsible for those atrocities";
Cutaway bookshelf;
SOT Gerald Gahima: "To encourage the court and prosecutors officers to release the elderly or the very sick on humanitarian grounds so that if need be they can stand trial without necessarily coming from prisons";
KIBUNGO TOWN
Prison door closed on inmates
2.13
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