NEW YORK (Reuters):

Rwanda faces a new round of ethnic violence if it fails to prosecute those who have killed witnesses and survivors of a 1994 genocide, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

The New York-based group said dozens of genocide survivors and others involved in the traditional gacaca process, where those accused in the 1994 genocide are being tried, have been killed in recent years.

Reprisal killings

The Human Rights Watch report said that in November, the murder of a genocide survivor - whose uncle is a gacaca judge - sparked reprisal killings of four children and four adults.

"Reprisal killings have been rare in the past, but if they become more frequent, they could spur a new cycle of violence," said Human Rights Watch senior Africa adviser Alison Des Forges in a statement.

Sixteen genocide survivors were killed in 2005 and seven in 2006, Human Rights Watch said, citing Rwandan officials. Survivor groups estimate that number to be around 20 deaths annually for the past several years.

Some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered in 100 days of killings in 1994. Soldiers of the Hutu-led government of the time and their ethnic militia allies have been accused of orchestrating the carnage.

The killings ended when Tutsi rebels, led by current President Paul Kagame, seized control and triggered an exodus of more than two million Hutus.

The group's report also raised concerns about the deaths of three suspects in police custody, who had been arrested in relation to the murder of a gacaca judge.

A police investigation into the deaths of the suspects cleared the officers, but Human Rights Watch said there were too many unanswered questions.

"In any society, deaths in custody at the hands of law enforcement must be subject to the highest scrutiny," said Des Forges.

Ethnic bloodshed

Paul Rusesabagina, the Rwandan hotel manager who inspired a Hollywood drama for heroically protecting 1,200 refugees fleeing the massacres, told Reuters last week that he feared Rwanda could be headed for more ethnic bloodshed.

He accused the government of laying the foundation for another genocide by punishing killers from "only one side" of the country's deadly ethnic conflict. But the government rebuffed the comments, saying Rusesabagina was out of touch.