Gikondo Prison
Gikondo Prison or Kigali City Prison is a prison in Kigali, Rwanda. It was built in the 1930s, was only intended originally to house a few thousand inmates. Following the Rwandan genocide, the numbers increased to above 50,000 as a large proportion of the inmates were genocidaires. Those who were brought to the Gacaca courts to undergo trial for war crimes stayed at the prison.
The International Committee of the Red Cross played an important role in reviewing the places of detention and to visit detainees accused of participating in the genocide. Overcrowding was still a major problem in 1997, and the prison infrastructure inappropriate for the number of new prisoners. Lack of food and medical care and poor hygiene conditions continuing to undermine health in the prison. [1]Conditions in the prison as with others in Rwanda, deteriorated again despite showing improvements before the war.
In October 1999, the ICRC submitted a confidential report to the highest authorities in Rwanda. Following negotiations, the ICRC then improved the supply of delivery of food, resources and medicines to civilian prisoners, undertook repairs and renovation and provided essential supplies for the prison. [1]
References
- 1 2 International Committee of the Red Cross Annual Report 1999, Retrieved on July 1, 2008