Genocide survivors flee province over killings

Several genocide survivors have fled Rwanda's southwestern province of Gikongoro for fear of becoming targets of killings that have rocked the area lately, a government bi-weekly newspaper, The New Times, reported on Monday.

The newspaper quoted a member of the Rwandan Senate, Stanley Safari, as saying that seven survivors of the 1994 genocide had sought refugee in other parts of the country due to intimidation and murder attempts.

"This is a clear indication of lack of prevention of the crime in the province," Safari was quoted as saying. "It is appalling that even now people are being hunted down to be killed."

Four genocide survivors were reported to have been killed in Gikongoro in December 2003 by an alleged a gang of genocide suspects in order to prevent the survivors from testifying in the Gacaca justice system, introduced in the country in 2001.

The Senate has accused government of being reluctant to stop the intimidation and the killings, claiming that some grassroots leaders were involved in the acts.

However, Prime Minister Bernard Makuza told the senators last week that the country's security organs had arrested 25 suspects in connection with the killings. He said some of the suspects would be charged in law courts before the end of January.

An umbrella organisation for survivors of genocide, known as IBUKA, reported in December 2003 that its members were killed in Gikongoro after they showed interest in testifying in the Gacaca courts.

The Gacaca justice system, based on traditional village courts, was introduced to speed up trials for an estimated 85,000 suspects held in the nation's prisons, in connection with the genocide that claimed the lives of at least 800,000 people.