ABSTRACT
As it was successfully routing the Hutu army and various Hutu militias, the RPF Army began rounding up Hutu suspected of participating in the genocide and committing other crimes. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) claimed that by August 1996, Rwanda had about 80,000 Hutu (mostly followers, rather than leaders) crammed into antiquated, putrid prisons, detained indefinitely while awaiting formal charges. Reportedly, over two thousand had died under these conditions (Reuters, 1995). As Van Lierop (1997, p. 887) notes, however, 'prison conditions may not be so disproportionately harsh when compared with living conditions for the average Rwandan citizen.' Rwanda emerged from the 1994 genocide as a devastated and poor country.
