Rwanda ruling party backs death penalty abolition

KIGALI, Oct. 13 (Reuters) Rwanda's ruling party today said it had agreed to abolish the death penalty, a move which could clear the way for more suspects from its 1994 genocide to be sent back from abroad.

A number of countries do not extradite suspects to nations that have a death penalty, and that has prevented some genocide suspects being sent back to the central African nation.

Extremist Hutus butchered some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates during the 1994 genocide, and justice for many perpetrators is still being meted out through a United Nations tribunal and village courts known as gacaca.

Rwanda's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) approved the decision to abolish capital punishment at a meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame last weekend, a spokesman said.

''We have asked our members of parliament to vote against the death penalty when it is brought before the house,'' RPF spokesman Servilien Sebasoni said.

''We want the death penalty to be done away with for even those key masterminds of the genocide.'' A draft bill is due to be tabled soon, but Sebasoni could not give a date. The RPF has an 80 percent majority in parliament.

Reuters KD DB2124