Authorities in Rwanda have released some 8,000 prisoners accused of involvement in the country's 1994 genocide.
The mass release Monday was part of a planned government initiative to ease crowding in the prison system and promote national reconcilation.
Officials emphasized that no leaders of the genocide were freed.
However, some genocide survivors have expressed anger at the release program. They say those set free sometimes murder others in order to destroy evidence related to their alleged role in the killings.
Hutu extremists killed an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically-moderate Hutus in the 1994 genocide.
The Rwandan government has freed a total of 60,000 genocide suspects since 2003.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
