Hundreds of Rwandans Protest Genocide Verdict

Hundreds of Rwandans marched today on the offices of the United Nations tribunal set up to try key cases related to Rwanda's 1994 genocide, to protest the court's decision to acquit two former cabinet ministers accused of masterminding killings. The protesters, bearing placards denouncing the Arusha, Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR), mainly constituted of survivors of the genocide, youths, and students who accused the tribunal of denying justice to genocide victims.

One typical banner read: "The international community failed in their response to protect the Tutsi from being killed and now it is failing to provide justice to survivors." More than 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The genocide tribunal has been trying leaders of the killings for several years. (More Rwanda stories.)