Rwanda abolishes death penalty
The ban will help the transfer of genocide
suspects to the Rwandan judiciary [EPA]
Rwanda has abolished the death penalty, opening the way for
genocide suspects to be tried there.
The abolition was one of the conditions set by the UN-backed
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to allow the transfer of
genocide suspects to the Rwandan judiciary.
Tharcisse Karugarama, Rwanda's justice minister, said: "The
abolition of death penalty is effective from July 25, 2007."
Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights,
welcomed Rwanda's decision.
"A country that has suffered the ultimate crime and whose
people's thirst for justice is still far from quenched has decided to forego a
sanction that should have no place in any society that claims to value human
rights and the inviolability of the person," Arbour said.
She praised Rwanda for "demonstrating leadership by action"
and said the ban announced on Thursday meant countries which had refused to
hand over suspects to the courts there because they may face the death penalty
could now do so.
The bill was initially put forward by the president, Paul
Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front, approved by the cabinet at the beginning of
the year and by the parliament over the past two months.
As a result of the bill's promulgation, some 600 Rwandans
should see their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
The move was immediately hailed by the European Union, which
congratulated "the Rwandan government and people" for taking "this important
decision."
According to the United Nations, the 1994 genocide killed
800,000 in a few weeks, mostly from the Tutsi minority.
Offloading some of the less high-profile cases to Rwandan
justice has become a necessity for the Tanzania-based ICTR, which is supposed
to wind up all criminal proceedings by the end of 2008, 14 years after its
creation.
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