Rwanda to speed up genocide trials of minors

KIGALI, Rwanda (Reuters) -- Rwanda, in response to an international outcry, says it will speed up the trials of more than 4,000 minors still in detention for their alleged involvement in the country's 1994 genocide.

"The Rwandan government has decided to give priority to the trials of minors in speeding up trial proceedings," Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo told Reuters late on Friday.

Most of the youngsters are being detained alongside adult suspects in violation of international conventions on the rights of children. Rwanda has come under heavy criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups for its treatment of the young genocide suspects, but it says it has simply lacked the resources to handle them properly and organize quick trials.

"It is not because of a lack of goodwill that we did not release these minors," Mucyo said. "The problem is rather complex and requires a lot of (financial) means."

He said some of those in detention were under the age of 14 at the time of the genocide but most were older and, six years later, are now adults.

U.N. officials have said 4,554 minors were detained for allegedly taking part in the genocide and urged the government to release them.

But Rwanda says the genocide, in which some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered by Hutu extremists in just 100 days, is a special case.

"The issue of minors in Rwanda cannot be compared to just any given situation elsewhere in the world," he said. "There was the direct involvement of people less than 10 years old in the genocide.

"This is the other side of the Rwandan tragedy. Some of these minors were influenced by adults or led other killers."

More than 100,000 genocide suspects are crammed in jails across the country with fewer than 2,000 cases tried so far.

To speed up the trials of minors, Mucyo said a mobile team of investigators has been set up to look at their cases.

The genocide ended when a Tutsi-led rebel army took power in July 1994, pushing extremist militiamen and hundreds of thousands of Hutu civilians into exile.

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