Rwanda genocide survivors criticize UN court’s call to permanently halt elderly suspect’s trial

By IGNATIUS SSUUNA
Associated Press

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Survivors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide have criticized a call by appeals judges at a United Nations court to indefinitely halt the trial of an alleged financer and supporter of the massacre due to the suspect’s ill health. Genocide survivor Francine Uwamariya said Tuesday the ruling felt like “the world does not mean good for us.” The appeals panel decision Monday likely means that Félicien Kabuga, who is nearly 90, will never be prosecuted. His trial, which started last year at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, was halted in June because his dementia left him unable to participate in proceedings. The U.N. court’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, says the ruling “must be respected, even if the outcome is dissatisfying.”