Is this really justice?

In 1994, there was a genocide in Rwanda where 800,000 people were massacred. The person responsible for the killings was Theoneste Bagosora. Now, he has been sentenced to life in prison.

My question is, Why is the person responsible for killing 800,000 people given a life sentence, that too 14 years after the incident? Shouldn’t he be given the death penalty? How does he deserve humanitarian consideration? Doesn’t make much sense.

Comments

jdk said…
Not all countries agree to Capital punishment.eg.UK.
Anyways he'd suffer more in prison...
gypsy said…
y do u hav to go soo far to africa? when ppl in bopal still have not got justice .....union carbide still makes million in a different name and the ceo andersons generations and the next still are millionares while our oun ppl have the scar of that bhopal tragedy....
//The person responsible for the killings was Theoneste Bagosora.//

Nope. He was the last link in the chain of hatred. A genocide does not happen through one person. There ought to be a sustained chain of hatred campaign, villifying one people against the other etc. And n Rwanda it was there. A whole army of colonial historiography was at work dividing Hutu-Tutsi communities along racial lines - playing one community against the other. So punishing one guy matters little, though bringing him to justice does matter gravely. We need to do away with colonial historiography and start building a more de-centralized local narratives and base it on local traditions and science rather than on grand narratives of colonial era which were often based on religion and racism of 19th century.

Popular Posts