11.04.07 - RWANDA/GENOCIDE - 600 CONVICTED PERSONS ENDED COMMUNITY WORK

Arusha, 11 April 2007 (FH) – Around 600 persons, among them two women, convicted for their role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 went back home after having ended their community work to which they had been convicted, we learn from an official source Wednesday. According to the Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Service of Community Work, Anastase Nabahire, contacted by phone by Hirondelle Agency, about 3,000 other condemned persons are currently serving in community work which, for now, includes building houses for weak people, filling out terraces in high altitude regions and hewing stones in order to pave the roads. Concerned with community works are persons convicted for genocide and sentenced to a maximum of 15 years’ imprisonment. Pursuant to law, they serve the half of their sentence in prison and the other half completing community work. Several thousands of other condemned persons, mostly by the Gacaca semi-traditional courts, are waiting for starting their community work. The Gacaca popular courts are in charge with trying most of the suspected persons responsible for the genocide of 1994 which, according to Kigali, caused almost one million of deaths, essentially members of the Tutsi ethnic group. During the execution of community work, the condemned persons live in a camp where they receive food and medical treatment at the expense of the State. Those who are seropositive receive anti-viruses. Those who are unable to complete community work due to their health state are released. In these camps, illiterate people learn to read and to write and everybody has to learn a profession at least. Since the beginning of community work, last year, about twenty convicted people who escaped from this sentence were imprisoned again, whereas four are still searched for by police, according to Nabahire. In Rwanda, only persons convicted for genocide are concerned with community work. In other countries, these works are also carried out by persons convicted for other crimes. ER/PB/CV © Hirondelle News Agency