By Brian Okoth
The Government of Rwanda has said it will rehabilitate 22,000 convicts serving jail sentences for the 1994 genocide.
National Unity minister Jean Bizimana said on Tuesday that the programme would facilitate the convicts’ reintegration into the society.
The rehabilitation will be done after the imprisoned people complete their jail sentences, said Bizimana.
The government is in the process of developing a unique curriculum to guide the rehabilitation, according to the minister.
Bizimana made the revelation when he appeared before Rwanda’s Parliamentary Committee on Unity, Human Rights and Fight against Genocide.
“The genocide convicts, who were sentenced to between 20 and 30 years in jail, are being released. According to our assessment, between 1,000 and 2,500 genocide convicts are released every year in a category of those who had been sentenced to between 15 and 25 years,” he said.
The minister said most of those sentenced up to 30 years in jail will be freed soon.
“The released genocide convicts should be prepared and rehabilitated before reintegration into society, because the country has faced rapid transformation over the past 30 years,” he said.
The government also intends to raise awareness in the communities where the ex-convicts would rejoin in efforts to avert stigma against the new entrants.
“The special curriculum will help rehabilitate and reintegrate the released convicts annually,” said Bizimana, adding: “We are working with other institutions, including Justice and Interior ministries, to build the programme.”
In about 100 days (between April and July) in 1994, some 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda, with the ethnic Hutu extremists largely blamed for the genocide.
