Rwanda Fires Abusive Police Officers

On November 5, Rwanda fired 129 officers of the National Police for gross misconduct and bribery. The move followed a July 2007 report by Human Rights Watch that exposed an increase in extra-judicial killings of detainees in police custody. We focused media attention on these abuses and conducted direct advocacy with Rwandan police, government officials, and international donors to urge an investigation into the killings and accountability for those who were responsible. We collaborated closely with Rwandan human rights organizations, in particular the League for the Defense of Human Rights of the Great Lakes (LDGL), which has also been advocating for police reforms. Before the report’s publication, officials admitted that the detainees were killed in police custody, but said they had all been attempting to escape or to seize the weapons of police officers. Authorities still have not explicitly acknowledged that the extra-judicial killings we exposed in the report were executions. Human Rights Watch will continue to press for an investigation and for the prosecutions necessary to ensure that the police force respects the rule of law.