No death penalty for genocide suspects abroad-Rwanda

KIGALI, Jan 19 (Reuters) Rwanda's parliament has scrapped the death penalty for suspects in its 1994 genocide who are either being held at a U N court in Tanzania or at large elsewhere abroad, authorities said today.

The unanimous 80-0 vote earlier this week paves the way for the transfer of suspects at the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) set up to try masterminds of the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Since its first trial in 1997, the ICTR has convicted only 27 people and is due to wind up in 2008, when most pending cases are likely to be transferred back to Kigali.

''Removing the death penalty has been a prerequisite for any legal process to begin regarding transfer of any cases to Rwanda,'' Aloys Mutabingwa, Rwanda's representative at the ICTR, told Reuters. ''We are now going to embark on negotiations with the tribunal and I am sure that before the end of this year, we will have some pending cases transferred to Rwanda.'' Genocide suspects still at large abroad -- mainly in Europe and the United States -- would also benefit from the new legislation if they were brought home, parliamentary officials said. The new law has to be rubber-stamped by the upper house, but that is a formality, they added.

The tiny central African nation has also drafted a law to completely take the death penalty off its statutes.

Only four people convicted of genocide inside Rwanda have been executed, in 1997, officials said.

About 8,000 remain on death row.

In expectation of receiving suspects from the ICTR in Arusha, Rwanda has refurbished a court room and built a new detention centre up to international standards.

''The proceedings will be close to what happens at the ICTR.

The only difference is that it will be faster here since witnesses will be readily available,'' Mutabingwa added.

Kigali says that bringing trials home would expedite the healing process from the genocide since survivors will see justice being done.

But critics say there could be bias in trials on domestic soil. Under the new legislation, the ICTR would be able to monitor trials in Rwanda and withdraw a case if it felt there were legal flaws in the proceedings.

''It has the right to take back the case if they feel that a certain case does not meet standards,'' Mutabingwa said.

Some 800,000 members of the minority Tutsi ethnic group and moderate Hutus were butchered in 100 days of killings from April, 1994, blamed on Hutu hardliners.

The killings ended only after Tutsi rebels led by current President Paul Kagame seized control of the nation.

REUTERS PB BS1753