Nov. 14
RWANDA: Death Penalty Not Effected Since 1998 There have not been any executions of convicts sentenced to death since 1998, senior government officials have said. Both the Internal Security Minister Christophe Bazivamo and the Prosecutor General Jean de Dieu Mucyo confirmed to The New Times this week that there has not been killing of any the convicts facing the cardinal sentence for the last 8 years. "It's true the sentence has not been implemented for the past 8 years. There are very many people in prisons waiting for the execution date," Mucyo told The New Times on Thursday. On April 24 1998, 22 key genocide convicts were executed amid international protest and appeal for clemency from the late Pope John Paul II. Among those killed at the time at a dusty pitch outside Nyamirambo Stadium known as Tapis Rouge (Red Carpet) was the Vice President of defunct Democratic Republican Movement (MDR) Froduald Karamira, Silas Munyagishari, one Burundi national, Elie Nshimiyimana, and one lady, Virginie Mukankusi. Karamira was the mentor of 'Hutu Power', a Hutu extremist faction that played key part in the slaughter of the about one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus, while Munyagishari was a Prosecutor in Kigali. The then President Pasteur Bizimungu, who is now in prison on treason charges, did not pardon any of the convicts. Asked whether the international community's disapproval of the sentence had caused the government not to implement the death punishment, Mucyo was rather elusive. He said the Cabinet has been discussing the issue and that a decision was yet to be reached. Bazivamo, whose ministry is in charge of prisoners, also confirmed the reports but said the sentence was still valid and could be implemented at any time. It was not possible to establish the number of those on death sentence by press time, but Bazivamo said a total of 3497 convicts, 81 of them women, had been sentenced to different penalties. Some officials said, in 1998 about 100 convicts were facing the cardinal sentence. (source: The New Times)
