Posted on 07/26/2007 1:29:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
KIGALI (AFP) - Rwanda has abolished the death penalty, a key step demanded by the international community to transfer genocide suspects to Rwandan courts, the justice minister said on Thursday.
"The abolition of death penalty is effective from July 25, 2007," Tharcisse Karugarama told AFP.
Abolishing the death penalty 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.
The bill was initially put forward by President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front, approved by the cabinet at the beginning of the year and approved by 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."
"The decision taken by Rwanda represents a fundamental step forward in the promotion of human rights and translates into a steely determination to ensure justice and reconciliation in Rwanda 13 years after the genocide," a statement by the EU's Portuguese presidency said.
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.
These leftists are a socially responsible lot aren’t they?
While the death penalty has been abolished - the annual “Run with the Gazelles through croc infested crossings event” has been added to the prison exercise program.
“some 600 Rwandans should see their death sentences commuted”
help me Rwanda, help help me Rwanda.
Ok
Leftists are so deranged they would rather require the feeding and comfort of genocidal mass-murderers than allow any state to execute them.
Socialist-twits and UN-flakes Stand United: we will protect every genocidal mass-murderer to the bitter end!
The irony is palpable...
The EU approves. Yes, the irony is thick.
And it will be reinstated the very moment we get the last of these murdering goons bank into Rwanda.
I'm absolutely stunned that the EU would prefer to have mass murderers walk around unpunished than to turn them over to a country that practices capital punishment. They hypocrisy of the EU is absolutely astounding.
If I were the Rwandan courts I'd have issued arrest warrants for every single EU head for aiding and abetting after the fact.
L
...isn’t this the place that committed terrible acts of genocide?
Another country that cares more about the lives of criminals than about the lives of their victims. This is progress?
It’s ironic that Western nations who executed Nazis for genocide now demand that Rwanda not execute people responsible for genocide.
A place cannot commit genocide. The Hutu “tribe” rose en masse and committed mass murder against the Tutsi “tribe”. I put the term in quotes because neither group is really separate ethnically. The tribal designations became fixed in colonial times, when the Belgians issued identity cards indicating tribal identity. The Tutsis are descendants of the former rulers of Rwanda, but intermarriage between the groups is common, and both groups speak the same language.
Rwanda, you just lost points there.
Rwanda abolishes death penalty
sub-head: No one left to kill
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