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Death penalty out in Rwanda

By tsmith on June 10, 2007.

Rwanda abolishes the death penalty:

Rwanda's parliament voted late on Friday to abolish the death penalty, a move that should clear the way for suspects in the 1994 genocide to be extradited back to Rwanda.

You might think that survivors of such a horrible genocide would want to see those who victimized them put to death, but the president of a group of survivors says otherwise:

Survivors of the slaughter welcomed the decision, noting that the death penalty had existed in Rwandan law before the genocide.

"It didn't deter people from picking up machetes to slaughter their fellows - that's why we are not bothered by its removal," said Theodore Simburudali, president of the Ibuka genocide survivors' group.

So Rwanda left the fold--that still leaves the US in the company of other death penalty-wielding countries, like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, China... But hey, there's hope...at least Iran now exceeds the USA in number of child offenders executed since 1990. Progress!

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"Rwanda's parliament voted late on Friday to abolish the death penalty, a move that should clear the way for suspects in the 1994 genocide to be extradited back to Rwanda."

I guess that explains a lot.

By Roman Werpachowski (not verified) on 10 Jun 2007 #permalink

That's a great link at Amnesty International. I hadn't seen that page before, and it really brings a lot of good information together.
Hurray for Rwanda. It seems they've (at least on some levels) turned some things around...

Its really good news,happy that they're progressing positively at least in this issue..I believe it'll be a lead example for the countries,which still practicing death penalty.Thanks for the link too..
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