Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
14 July 2008
Kigali — A sixteen-year-old Rwandan girl from Kigali committed suicide by swallowing toxic chemicals following her father's refusal to confess to his role in the 1994 genocide, reported Monday the Izuba (Sun) newspaper.
The deceased identified as, Esperance Uwimana, was training to be a seamstress, according to the newspaper.
Before swallowing the deadly poison on 7 July, the teenager, who resided in the district of Nyarugunga, left a written letter in which she expressed her desire to one day "to meet " her father again because of the refusal of the latter to plead guilty.
According to the newspaper, the deceased explained that by pleading guilty "her father could have been pardoned or sentenced to community service, which would have given them chance to one day reunite as a family. "
Following the refusal of her father to plead guilty, she concluded that " her life was useless."
The genocide, from April to July 1994, resulted, according to Kigali, in nearly a million killed although the UN estimates the death toll to be around 800 000, primarily ethnic Tutsis.
The Gacaca courts are presided not by professional judges but by people considered of high esteem within the community.
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