A group of Rwandan genocide suspects at the UN tribunal in Tanzania has gone on hunger strike. They are protesting against the decision by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to transfer a case to Rwanda.

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By Thijs Bouwknegt

"The signing detainees draw the attention of the ICTR authorities and of public opinion to this arbitrary  situation and after their co-detainee, John Uwinkindi, they also decided to start a hunger strike," reads a communique signed by 24 detainees at the tribunal's prison.

The ICTR on 28 June referred the case of pastor Jean Uwinkindi to Rwanda to be tried in the Rwandan national court system, marking the first time in the tribunal’s history it has done so.

Three judges said they were satisfied that the "government of Rwanda was prepared to receive its first referral from the ICTR." They advised the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to monitor Uwinkindi’s trial in Rwanda.

But after Uwinkindi announced on Tuesday that he would go on hunger strike to stop the transfer of his case to his home country, he was put in isolation at the UN prison. His fellow detainees in Arusha decided to support Uwinkindi's opposition to the transfer.

"We do not understand how your Tribunal, which is part and parcel of the United Nations, could ignore the catastrophic state of the Rwanda judiciary and take itself off a case, in favour of Rwanda - at a time when the Tribunal is in a position to try the case without compromising its completion strategy," they wrote in a separate letter to the court's president.

The suspects at the ICTR argue that Rwanda could not possibly give Uwinkindi a fair trial because he would be "a disturbing witness against the current Rwanda regime."

Lead photo - hotedephil on flickr.com - all further use subject to this CC license