Hate crimes most reported in April

GASABO - While other crimes went down in April, genocide ideology cases increased tremendously during the same month, the Director of Criminal Investigation Department, Chief Superintendent Joseph Costa Habyara has said. “Overall the number of registered crime cases reduced, but mathematically crimes increased from 1064 in March to 1082 in April. The rise in crime was caused by an increase of genocide ideology and revisionism cases increased from 31 to 191 over the same period,” Habyara told journalists at the Rwanda National Police headquarters in Kacyiru on Tuesday. He explained that the hate crimes increased during the mourning period which is officially marked nationwide between April 7 and 14. He noted that the genocide ideology is like dealing in drugs since it is hard to identify people with it, and urged the general public to increase their cooperation with police to address the problem. “The solution will come from exchanging information, sensitisation and everyone’s collaboration. People have to understand and be determined to fight the ideology right from the grassroots,” the CID chief remarked. Habyara blasted people who publicly pretend to be fighting the ideology and yet they are doing the contrary or were simply indifferent. He expressed hope that the yet-to-be-enacted legal instrument against genocide ideology would help tackle the matter, adding that fighting it without proper punishment in place constituted a challenge to law-enforcers. “With such a law in place, it will be easy to make a follow-up and handle the problem right from schools to all administrative levels,” he observed. The head of Traffic Police, Superintendent Robert Niyonshuti, said that the City of Kigali leads the rest of the country in accident cases, attributing it to traffic congestion in Kigali and lack of sufficient safety measures along several city roads. “Some roads in Kigali have no traffic lights while others are used by many vehicles and pedestrians at the same time,” he noted. The officer added that police had increased traffic personnel and patrols along city roads that were highly prone to accidents. “We have also increased sensitization among all categories of road users,” he added. He continued that last month, taxi drivers were responsible for 28 percent of the total road accidents, motorcyclists (25 percent), and pedestrians (21 percent). Niyonshuti said that 40 percent of road accident victims during the month of April were pedestrians. The Police Spokesman, Inspector Willy Marcel Higiro, called on journalists and the general public to lend a hand by providing information on criminals. Ends