Rwanda denies rebels escaped justice over genocide

Rwanda denies accusations from Human Rights Watch that rebels led by now President Paul Kagame went unpunished for war crimes and revenge killings after the central African nation's 1994 genocide.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to indict senior officers from the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) as it did to the Hutu masterminds of the genocide.
 
But Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama says, in response to the rights group's letter, authorities had punished "most severely" soldiers who had violated rules of military engagement and committed war crimes.
"Some abuses did indeed take place but the soldiers were arrested, they were arraigned before courts of law, they were judged by the competent court and sentenced," says the minister.
 
But according to the HRW, the trials of those suspects in Rwanda were a political whitewash.