Rwandans to do time abroad
2004-04-28 10:29
Arusha - Sweden agreed on Tuesday that prison sentences handed down by a UN-mandated court trying top suspects in Rwanda's 1994 genocide could be served in its jails, the independent Hirondelle agency reported.
The undertaking was made in an agreement signed by a senior Swedish foreign ministry official, Carl Ehrenkrona, and the registrar of the International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Adama Dieng, at the court's headquarters in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha.
Five other countries have similar agreements with the court: Benin, France, Italy, Mali and Swaziland.
Prisons must confirm to strict criteria of comfort and security to qualify to host ICTR convicts.
Around 800 000 people, mostly from the minority Tutsi ethnic group, were killed over 100 days in 1994 in a killing campaign planned and orchestrated by the Hutu government in power at the time.
Eighteen people have been convicted by the ICTR since it was set up in late 1994.