APA-Kigali (Rwanda) Following last week’s release of two top 1994 genocide suspects by the United nations Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, hundreds of Rwandan genocide Survivors on Saturday held peaceful demonstrations across the country, hinting at the possibility of boycotting future court proceeding, APA learns here.

During one of the demonstrations in Kigali, the 1994 genocide survivors under their umbrella organization, IBUKA called on the government to stop sending witnesses to the UN tribunal in Tanzania, over what they call the court’s irresponsibility in handling genocide cases.

The groups, who provide many of the witnesses for the trials, say they will not cooperate unless ICTR reverses its latest decisions to release Hormisdas Nsengimana and Protais Zigiranyirazo.

The two are seen by Kigali authorities as key architects of the 1994 mayhem that claimed over a million Rwandans in just 100 days.

"We want the ICTR to reverse their outrageous decision of letting free our killers. If not, we shall consider not participating in such proceedings as witnesses because it’s a mockery of justice,” Freddy Mutanguha, general secretary of IBUKA, told APA in an interview during the demonstrations.

The demonstrations stretched from the tribunal’s documentation centre in downtown Kigali to the court’s Rwanda liaison office based in Remera.

“We are all against ICTR’s decisions. Releasing genocide perpetrators is outright denial of genocide, releasing a person like (Protais) Zigiranyirazo, (Emmanuel) Bagambiki, Andre Ntagerura, Ignace Bagirishema, Gen Gratien Kabirigi and others, proves injustice and we are against this, we are protesting this,” chanted the demonstrators.

The ICTR has convicted 39 of 47 cases heard. It released Nsengimana this week saying it did not have enough evidence to convict the Catholic pastor of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Theodore Simburudari, Ibuka president, urged the government of Rwanda to ask UN Security Council to investigate ICTR judges over their unfair rulings.

He said Ibuka was halting its cooperation with the Arusha based tribunal.