The Rwandan authorities have been urged to deal harshly with released genocide perpetrators who commit crimes again so as to protect genocide survivors.

The call was made after a genocide survivor had been killed in northern Rwanda by allegedly released genocide perpetrators.

"Policies of tolerance and reconciliation have led to less and less punishment for criminals and now some people are not afraid of killing," the Hirondelle News Agency quoted a genocide survivor as saying on Wednesday.

Hirondelle is an Arusha-based news service specializing in reporting United Nations trials of Rwandan genocide suspects.

Genocide survivors are likely to be wiped out if the Rwandan government does not step up security for genocide survivors and brings to justice murderers intent on destroying evidence in genocide trials, Hirondelle quoted Ibuka (Remember) spokesperson Benoit Kaboyi as saying.

Ibuka is the largest genocide survivor organization in Rwanda.

"The government should see to it that such (murder) cases are followed up diligently and perpetrators punished severely," said Kaboyi.

Over 30,000 confessed genocide perpetrators have been released in Rwanda in the last two years following their declarations of remorse and requests for forgiveness.

Some genocide survivors denounced the releases arguing that they trivialize genocide, endanger witnesses' safety and traumatize survivors.

The United Nations Security Council moved to set up a special UN court, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in northern Tanzania in 1994 to try genocide suspects.

The UN court, with its mandate to end in 2008, has so far brought to trial 25 people while 27 others are currently on trial, with another 17 waiting to be taken to the court.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2005)