22.03.10 - RWANDA/GACACA - 1,571 INMATES ABSCONDED FROM PUBLIC INTEREST LABOUR CAMPS SINCE 2005

22 March 2010 By

Arusha, March 22, 2010 (FH) - Between 2005 and 2009, 1,571 Rwandans convicted for their role in the 1994 genocide have run away from public interest labour camps - known by their French acronym for travaux d'intérêt général as "TIG camps " - where they were supposed to serve their sentence instead of going to jail, the pro-government Izuba Rirashe newspaper reported on Monday.

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TIG camps were opened in 2005 to relieve the country's dramatically overcrowded prisons. Genocide-accused are eligible for the penalty substitution if they confess their crimes before a Gacaca court and ask their victims for forgiveness.

Quoting the Secretary General of the TIG camps, Izuba Rirashe reports that 670 fugitives have been rearrested while 901 are still on the run.

In different camps all over the country, there are currently 106,918 TIG inmates in Rwanda, according to the newspaper.

The inmates erect schools and houses for homeless genocide survivors, break stones, landscape the soil to prevent erosion, or build roads and bridges.

They are meant to acquire skills helping them to better reintegrate into society once their sentence completed. Some participate in literacy programs.

ER/GF