Rwanda to free 8,000 genocide detainees

KIGALI, Rwanda, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Rwanda will free about 8,000 prisoners linked to the country's 1994 genocide in a move to promote national reconciliation and relieve jail overcrowding.

The releases will begin next month and reflects a pattern of periodic housecleaning in the justice system that is still struggling with the massacre of about a half-million people in less than a year.

Sky News said many of the prisoners who will be getting out were convicted of lesser charges and were not involved in the planning of the 100-day tribal bloodbath that began with the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana.

About 63,000 Rwandans have been jailed in connection with the genocide. A U.N. tribunal seated in Tanzania has been trying the alleged ringleaders.