Between 1994 and 2003, the National Courts in Rwanda tried over 5,000 genocide cases

Between 1994 and 2003, the National Courts in Rwanda tried over 5,000 genocide cases and sentenced over 698 people to death.
Alison Des Forges, an Advisor to Human Rights Watch. Said that for reconciliation to take root in Rwanda, genocide survivors must feel and see that justice had been done. But she also said believed the death penalty was not the only way.
"I can understand why people who have lost family members or who have been harmed themselves physically could well feel that nothing short of the death penalty would be satisfactory. Still other forms of punishment can in fact be very severe and someone who has to face his life in prison may in fact be better punished than someone who was simply executed", Des Forges pointed out.
Benoit Kaboyi, in charge of justice issues in IBUKA, the association of survivors, said he saw the death penalty as a strong deterrent. "For me when I think about the death penalty I do not think of it in terms of unity and reconciliation. I look at the fact that these crimes were committed and there should be a corresponding punishment.
he death penalty is important because it teaches the perpetrator and society in general that people who commit such heinous crimes will be punished in the same manner," he asserted.
Rwanda's prosecutor general Jean De Dieu Mucyo said that while there might be a need to look at the law again, any decision on whether or not to maintain the death sentences already passed would have to take in the diverse views of Rwandans and international observers.
"The death penalty is there in our law that has not changed. That is a big debate that is relevant to all Rwandans, it is not something that affects only one part of the society, what we could probably ask is for a forum to be set up so that people can express their views about it," he said.