Rwandan Genocide survivors hold no candle for Judge Theodor Meron, the president of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

Meron was also the president of the Appeals Chamber of the Mechanism’s predecessor, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTR).

The main bone of contention for both Rwandans and former Yugoslav victims are decisions taken by Meron that were seen to favour perpetrators of mass human rights offences and even setting some free.

Well, that could be left to judicial interpretation, but what riles Rwandans more is that some notorious criminals were let off easily; People who never bothered to hide their crimes or openly incited people to commit genocide.

So, just last week, Judge Meron signed an early release order for Nahimana Ferdinand, one of the persons behind the creation and operation of the hate radio station, Radio Television de Mille Collines (RTLM) who was serving a 30-year sentence.

Also released was a Catholic priest, Rukundo Emmanuel who had been sentenced to serve 23 years in jail.

Contrary to the rules, the judge should have first consulted Rwanda on the release, but he did not. Judge Meron had at the very beginning opposed Nahimana’s condemnation calling his crimes "mere hate speech” that was synonymous with free speech.

Both genocide convicts responsible for the deaths of a million people are now free thanks to "good behavior; the icing on Meron’s magnanimous cake.

Well, the damage has been done and there is no turning back, but it is a very major blot on international criminal justice.