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![]() Friday, April 24, 1998 Published at 14:28 GMT 15:28 UK ![]() ![]() ![]() Despatches ![]() 'This is what they wanted to see' ![]() More than 125,000 people are awaiting trial in Rwanda's crowded prisons
The Rwandan Government has gone ahead with executions of convicts found guilty of taking part in the genocide of 1994. The BBC's Cathy Jenkins witnessed
events in the Rwandan capital, Kigali:
Four people - three men and one woman - were led out to the execution stakes
set up on open ground above the city. They were dressed in the pink uniform of
prisoners.
Once bound, they were blindfolded and black target squares were
placed on their chests. The waiting lasted for 15 minutes.
Then, the firing squad moved in. They went from left to right - several bullets fired for
each prisoner in turn. The woman on the far right was the last.
As the shots
rang out, the thousands of people who had come to watch shouted out. There is
no doubt that this is what they wanted to see.
One of the men executed in
Kigali, Froduald Karamira, was a well-known Hutu propagandist. He was
considered one of the major figures whipping up hatred against Tutsis and
moderate Hutus during the genocide.
At other sites in the country, more
executions have taken place. At Nyamata, a place notorious for a massacre in a
church, five men were shot. Twenty-two people were executed in total.
The Rwandan Government ignored the pleas for clemency which continued to come in
right up to the public executions.
Whilst deploring the 1994 genocide, many
organisations outside Rwanda have questioned whether all the condemned would
have had a fair trial.
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