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Information, Documentation and Training Agency, Arusha (Tanzania): Rwanda / Justice
Rwanda / Justice - files - 1999/2001
DECEMBER 10th, 2001
RWANDA JUSTICE
FIRST "GACACA" GENOCIDE TRIALS TO START IN MAY
Kigali/Gitarama, December 10th, 2001 (FH) Rwanda expects to launch the first genocide trials under "gacaca" traditional justice in May 2002, according to a timetable from the Supreme Court revealed on Monday. The first trials are to be organized in twelve pilot sectors, then extended to the rest of the country, so that two months later all jurisdictions should be working.
The Supreme Court's timetable was revealed at a one-day meeting of province-level gacaca judges, held on Monday in Murambi (Gitarama, central Rwanda). It was the first such meeting since some 260,000 gacaca judges were elected in October. They will sit on "people's courts", designed to speed up trials related to the 1994 genocide.
Trials will only start after the training of the judges. The first step will be the training of 780 trainers, scheduled for February 4th to March 15th. These trainers are mostly magistrates or final year law students. They will be coached mainly in techniques for training adults. After their own training, they will be divided up into small groups who will go out to train gacaca judges in the villages.
Each small group of trainers will be in charge of training gacaca judges in six sectors. The 780 trainers will have three months to train 254,152 judges. Each elected gacaca judge is entitled to six days of training, that is, two days per week. Judges at the Murambi meeting complained that this would not be enough to prepare the judges properly.
First training sessions in March
The first training sessions for gacaca judges are to start on March 18th, 2002. They will take place simultaneously in Kigali and in the 12 pilot provinces. The "people's judges" elected in October have been chosen by their communities as people of integrity. However, many of them lack much formal education, and some (especially at the lowest administrative or cell level) are even illiterate.
During their training, the judges are to receive instruction in basic principles of law (especially in relation to the January 2001 law on gacaca); group management (how to organize and chair meetings); conflict resolution; judicial ethics; trauma (understanding and recognizing trauma, learning how to behave with trauma victims); human resources, equipment and financial management. Some 109,000 training manuals are to be printed and translated into the Rwandan language, Kinyarwanda.
Gacaca courts are to be set up at four administrative levels: cell, sector, district (formerly commune) and province. They will have the power to judge suspects charged with all but the highest category of genocide crimes. Since 1996, Rwandan law has divided genocide suspects into four categories.
Gacaca jurisdictions at cell level will judge Category Four suspects, that is, people charged with looting or destroying victims' property during the genocide. Those found guilty will have to pay reparations only. Judgements at this level cannot be appealed. While this level of gacaca court will therefore handle only the more minor crimes, it will also categorize all suspects coming from that cell.
Sector level gacaca courts will judge Category Three suspects, defined as "the person who has committed or became accomplice of serious attacks without the intention of causing death to victims". District level gacaca jurisdictions will judge Category Two suspects, that is, those alleged to have killed. Such people face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
District level gacaca courts will also handle appeals from the sector level. Gacaca jurisdictions at province level will serve solely as appeals courts for district level cases.
Suspected genocide planners placed in Category One will continue to be tried by the ordinary courts, where judges are professional jurists holding at least a law degree. Category One suspects may face the death penalty.
Logistical problems
Speaking at the Murambi meeting, president of the Supreme Court's gacaca department Aloysie Cyanzayire said that setting up gacaca was a lengthy process, for various reasons.
For example, she said, no Rwandan printer had the capacity to print 109,000 handbooks in less than two months, and none of them had enough stocks of paper (it has to be imported). Cyanzayire also cited budgetary problems: she said that financial resources for setting up gacaca jurisdictions had only been introduced into the state budget for 2002, currently under discussion in parliament. She said funds could become available at the end of January 2002.
In the budget bill, Cyanzayire's department is asking for the equivalent of about $3.7 million, of which about half is to be allocated to training. The rest is earmarked for the heavy logistical requirements of gacaca, notably transport of judges, detainees and witnesses. Gacaca judges will not be paid, but will receive a per diem, whose amount still has to be fixed by the cabinet.
WK/JC/PHD/FH (RW_1210E)
NOVEMBER 22nd, 2001
RWANDA / JUSTICE
EX-MP DIES IN RWANDAN JAIL, ONE YEAR AFTER ACQUITTAL
Kigali, November 22nd, 2001 (FH) An ex-politician under Rwanda's former régime, tried and acquitted on genocide charges one year ago, has died in prison aged 72, according to Rwandan independent weekly Umuseso. According to the newspaper and to a family member contacted by Hirondelle, Zacharie Banyangiriki had been seriously ill for several months but was denied medical treatment.
According to his family, Banyangiriki was in a coma for a week preceding his death. His wife and daughter were denied visiting rights and saw him only when his dead body was delivered to them. The funeral was conducted of November 2nd in the village of his birth. Umuseso concludes its story with the following question: "If the State wants to eradicate the culture of impunity, who will punish the person(s) that refused to let Zacharie out of prison?"
Banyangiriki was until 1993 a member of parliament in the Conseil National de Développement (CND - parliament under former single party MRND of the late president Juvénal Habyarimana). He was arrested in 1996 and charged, along with seven others, with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. He waited four years to be brought to trial before a court in Butare, southern Rwanda. On December 1st, 2000, the court acquitted all the accused for lack of sufficient evidence, and ordered their immediate release.
Immediately, however, there were demonstrations against the court decision. "The Ministry therefore deemed it inopportune to release the acquitted persons," says Rwandan human rights organization LIPRODHOR, "and further argued new facts as a reason to keep them in prison."
Umuseso writes that the detainees were victim of a conspiracy involving the Butare prosecution. The State Prosecutor was reportedly adamant in his refusal to sign their release, despite protests from Banyangiriki's defence lawyer and his own superiors at the district Appeals Court and the Supreme Court of Rwanda. Banyangiriki's seven co-accused are still in prison.
"New facts"
LIPRODHOR says this case is not an isolated one, and that "new facts" are often invoked to keep acquitted persons in jail. It says that "the sudden appearance of new facts often occurs in the case of people from a certain social class, such as intellectuals, former politicians and businessmen".
LIPRODHOR gives examples, such as Théodore Munyangabe, former deputy-prefect of Cyangugu, in southwest Rwanda. Munyangabe was sentenced to death by a Cyangugu Trial Chamber, but then acquitted on appeal. He was immediately jailed again, with an indictment citing "new facts".
Pierre Rwakayigamba, former deputy governor of the Banque Nationale du Rwanda (central bank) was acquitted by a Trial Chamber in Kibungo, southeast Rwanda. He was rearrested in the capital Kigali, before being released again a few months later.
Ignace Banyaga, former deputy-prefect of Kibuye, western Rwanda, was acquitted and released on April 27th, 1999. He was arrested again a day later. LIPRODHOR says that as in the cases of Munyangabe and Rwakayigamba the "new facts" cited were "100 percent similar to those contained in the first indictment". Banyaga was finally released a year later, on July 25th, 2000.
Emmanuel Munyankumburwa was mayor of Mushubati (Gitarama prefecture in central Rwanda) and successor to Fulgence Niyonteze (convicted of war crimes by a Swiss military court, for his role in the 1994 genocide). Two months after being acquitted and released by a Gitarama court, Munyankumburwa was re-arrested by the State Prosecutor of the same jurisdiction. New facts were presented to the court. But the judge considered them to be the same is in the initial case, and the prisoner was finally released.
WK/JC/FH (RW_1122E)
NOVEMBER 21st, 2001
RWANDA / JUSTICE
COURT SENTENCES SEVEN TO DEATH FOR GENOCIDE IN 1991
Kigali, November 20th, 2001 (FH) A court in Ruhengeri, northwest Rwanda, has sentenced seven people to death for genocide committed in 1991, the independent news agency Hirondelle learned on Tuesday.
Following a joint trial of 22 people, the court on Friday also handed down three sentences of life imprisonment and 10 acquittals. Two people who pleaded guilty were sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Rwanda's courts are empowered by law to try crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed between October 1st, 1990 (when the pro-Tutsi RPF invaded Rwanda) and December 31st 1994. By contrast, the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) can only try such crimes committed in 1994. Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in Rwanda between April 6th, 1994 and mid-July that year.
Bagogwe massacres
In January 1991, rebels of the RPF (now in power in Kigali) launched a raid on Ruhengeri from the surrounding mountains. They broke into the prison, releasing several former politicians who had been held since 1980 for attempting a coup against former president Juvénal Habyarimana.
After the RPF had gone, local authorities and elements of the population organized "reprisals" against local Tutsis, accusing them of having helped and supplied information to the rebels. They massacred several hundred members of a Tutsi community known as the Bagogwe. Two years later, on January 10th, 1993, an international commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Rwanda found a mass grave in the garden of the mayor of Kinigi commune in Ruhengeri. (This mayor was killed by the RPF a few weeks later.)
Last April, 22 people from Kinigi were jointly brought to trial before the Ruhengeri court for alleged involvement in the Bagogwe massacres. The trial was suspended after they demanded legal assistance, but then restarted with some ten lawyers assisting the accused. It concluded with the court sentencing last Friday.
Among the ten acquitted were a 75-year-old woman, Angéline Nyangoma, who had been in detention since returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo in April 1997, and one of her sons. Another of her sons was, however, among those sentenced to life in prison.
WK/JC/PHD/FH (RW_1120e)
OCTOBER 17th, 2001
RWANDA/JUSTICE
GENOCIDE SURVIVORS "ACCEPT" GACACA COURTS
Kigali/ Arusha, October 17th, 2001 (FH) Survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda accept the advent of 11,000 new "gacaca" courts to try genocide cases, because there is no alternative, the president of genocide survivors’ group IBUKA told Hirondelle in a recent interview.
“We have accepted gacaca because there is simply no alternative to tackle the current judicial crisis in Rwanda,” said Antoine Mugesera. He said that IBUKA had been working to sensitize genocide survivors about the law on gacaca, to prepare them for the introduction of the new "people's courts".
At a congress this September, IBUKA said that it wanted various amendments and improvements to the gacaca law. For example, it wanted judges elected in the place where they lived at the time of the genocide, rather than where they are living now. It also called for more security guarantees for judges and witnesses.
Mugesera said IBUKA's request for amendments had not been successful, but that his organization was "generally content" with the law setting up gacaca. The law, passed early this year, provides for gacaca courts at four administrative levels countrywide to judge all but the highest category of genocide suspects (planners). Earlier this month, Rwandans elected some 260,000 "people's judges" to sit on the new courts.
Asked about cases of genocide survivors that boycotted recent elections for gacaca judges, Mugesera said this was because some survivors lacked understanding of how the courts will operate. "Some people still don’t understand that present-day gacaca has been modified to deal with serious crimes like genocide,” Mugesera noted. “They still think of Gacaca as the old traditional system that it used to be.”
Gacaca courts are to be based on an adapted form of traditional Rwandan justice. Persons of high moral integrity elected from their communities will decide the fate of thousands of genocide suspects languishing in crowded prisons across Rwanda. The courts are expected to start functioning in the first half of next year (2002).
One genocide survivor whose three sons and a daughter were killed in the genocide, told Hirondelle earlier this year that adapting the traditional justice system was not appropriate for judging genocide. "Gacaca is a mild way of settling minor scores," she said, "not criminal cases."
Rwanda currently has about 120,000 genocide suspects awaiting trial in overcrowded jails around the country. Since December 1996 when trials began, Rwanda has judged only about 6,000 people in the 13 conventional courts hearing genocide cases a pace at which experts say it would take Rwanda some 200 years to try all suspects.
GG/JC/PHD/FH (RW_1017E)
OCTOBER 11th, 2001
RWANDA/ JUSTICE
(News Analysis)
HOPES AND FEARS AS RWANDA LAUNCHES PARTICIPATIVE JUSTICE
by Julia Crawford
Kigali/ Arusha, October 11th, 2001 (FH) Rwanda's election of some 260,000 judges to serve in 11,000 new genocide courts has kicked off an experimental project in post-genocide "people's justice" that is raising both hopes and fears. Having been present at the polls, Hirondelle here takes a look at some of the questions that both Rwandans and international observers are asking themselves: Was the electoral process acceptable? Will the judges be up to their task? Will people tell the truth about what happened in 1994, or will there be a spate of reprisals, security problems and new traumas for the population? Will the authorities interfere in the judicial process, or will this really be people's justice?
Was the electoral process acceptable?
It certainly seems to have been acceptable to most Rwandans Hirondelle spoke to, although president of the election organizing committee Protais Musoni admits there were some procedural problems. He attributes these to the lack of education and training of grassroots organizers, and says mistakes are being be corrected.
There was a mass turnout of the population last Thursday, probably over 90%, for the first round of "elections". Adults in towns and villages throughout the country were asked to endorse or reject candidates proposed by their representatives in "nyumba kumi" (units of ten households). This was done in public meetings where citizens were given the opportunity to step forward and "criticize" the candidates. In the wake of genocide, this exercise could have been explosive, but it seems to have been generally good-natured and disciplined.
Undoubtedly, there was pressure to attend the meetings, both from within the community and from the authorities. In Kigali, for example, I was woken up at 6.15 a.m. local time on Thursday by a van blaring a message through a megaphone: "Rwandans wake up, it's time to fulfil your civic duty", or words to that effect. The previous day I had asked a lady teacher working in a Rwandan village whether many people, like herself, would be travelling to their places of origin to vote. "Everyone will vote," she replied. When asked whether they might not take advantage of the public holiday to drink beer instead she hesitated, smiled and responded: "Afterwards." She was right on both counts.
"No secret ballots? Public meetings to designate candidates and denounce people?" asked one foreign human rights activist incredulously when he heard how the meetings were run. I pointed out that this was a poor country which the international community had failed, both at the time of the genocide and by not doing enough to help bring swift trials afterwards. He stuck to his guns: "But this is Stalinian! It would not be accepted anywhere else in the world!"
Rwandans inside the country do not seem to perceive the elections that way. Even if they were perhaps pressurized to attend meetings, they were not obliged to participate actively, or put themselves forward as judges. Nevertheless many did. Even if some have doubts about gacaca, most people expressed a fervent desire to see it work. They say they are fed up with waiting for justice, and hope gacaca can offer a way out of their society's current problems.
In five years of genocide trials in Rwanda, the existing courts have tried only about 6,000 people, less than 5% of the current prison population. The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has passed only nine judgements in four years of trials, despite an annual budget of some 80 million US dollars.
Will the judges be up to their task?
Even Rwandan officials at the highest level have expressed some concern about the quality of the gacaca judges. Not only do the "people's judges" lack formal training in law, but many at the lower level are also illiterate.
The government has promised training for these judges, expected to start at the beginning of next year and to last a few months. International non-governmental organization Avocats sans Frontières (ASF, or Lawyers without Borders) in Rwanda told Hirondelle it has official approval for a two-week seminar in December 2001 to train the judges' trainers. So far, these trainers comprise 125 people from the Rwandan Supreme Court.
ASF, which is providing technical assistance on gacaca, has also produced a handbook on the gacaca law which it will release in November. Rwanda's "organic law" setting up gacaca is complicated, and ASF boss in Rwanda Ahlonko Dovi of Togo says his organization felt it was necessary to produce a manual that could be used by everyone, including the judges.
"We remain concerned about gacaca, but we want to contribute positively," Dovi told Hirondelle. While stressing that it was a personal view, and not the official position of ASF, Dovi proceeded to admit that "as a lawyer I cannot help but be worried".
His fears, he said, were based on the fact that the judges may not have sufficient time for preparation and training; that the rights of the defence are not ensured; and that the population may not have been sufficiently prepared for gacaca. "The judges not only lack sufficient legal knowledge, but often they lack a basic educational grounding," Dovi told Hirondelle. "It is absolutely vital to focus on the training of these judges."
The judges are presumed to have been elected as upright members of society, free from any spirit of ethnic or racial discrimination. They will be required to ensure that both accusers and accused get a fair hearing, especially as suspects will not have the right to a lawyer. Thus the judges are only likely to inspire confidence if they show themselves to be genuinely impartial. Indeed, if the people of Rwanda are to remain committed to the gacaca process, they must have confidence in their judges.
Already, some survivors have raised doubts about how "clean" some of the judges may be. Gacaca electoral commission boss Protais Musoni, who is also an architect of the gacaca project, says the law has provided for an ongoing "cleansing" process, to which complainants may make recourse.
Village gacaca courts have three levels: a General Assembly of the adult population, the Seat (19 judges) and its coordinating committee. According to the law, says Musoni, complaints can be taken to the General Assembly, which is empowered to remove judges if they are not performing properly.
"We have been teaching that it is better to use truth as early as possible, from now on. There may be some who may not have been that forthright and went into the courts when they are not clean, but as I say it's a process," Musoni told Hirondelle. "If you are not clean you will get off and other people will come in. So it's a cleansing process that will come up."
Will people tell the truth, or will there be a spate of reprisals?
This is a very real fear, and the fear factor will be crucial to whether Rwandans are prepared to tell the truth or not about what happened during the genocide. "What will be the reactions to gacaca, to the results that it comes up with, to the reparations it orders?" asks Ahlonko Dovi of ASF. "Will there be reprisals against those who are set free? What will be the reaction of victims to the liberation of their families' butchers?"
Other observers point out that the gacaca law provides for reduced penalties for genocide suspects who confess their crimes, and that suspects brought before the gacaca courts may be ready to denounce others who are still walking free. If such accused are perceived as "bothersome witnesses", will they be removed? Will there be threats against their families, against the judges? Not to mention genocide survivors in the community who may also be subject to threats and security problems.
"That would be terrible if it happens," says Musoni. But he believes the Rwandan authorities have a high stake in making the process work, and will be vigilant. "It's a process, I would say, which is very new," he told Hirondelle, "with quite a number of risks along the way, and I hope that the High Court will be very close to how the cases are being tried, explaining, guiding and so on, so that we end up resolving this issue."
As to whether people will tell the truth to the gacaca courts, independent journalist and gacaca election observer Eugène Cornelius says it will be a gradual process. "People will tell the truth, but we can't expect them to tell the truth straight away," he says. "Gacaca is a process. At first they will come forward timidly. I think that when the first trials start, they won't come forward straight away, especially as Rwandans are not people who are spontaneous. It's with time, with the search for truth, that the truth will finally triumph."
Even if people do tell the truth, there is concern that this could cause a high degree of personal trauma. It will not be easy, for example, for people to talk about how their neighbours killed their families, how they were raped or tortured in public. Women's groups in particular have expressed concern about this.
The South African experience, as that country's "Business Day" newspaper recently commented, has shown that truth and reconciliation may heal some wounds but it may also open up new ones. The Rwandan authorities seem ill prepared so far to cope with that eventuality. And the international community, once again, seems ill prepared to help.
Will the authorities interfere in the judicial process?
Some observers contend that the gacaca process is political and will be subject to political interference. Certainly, the 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed occurred against a background of ongoing ethnic tension and civil war which broke out when pro-Tutsi RPF guerrillas invaded from Uganda in 1990. The RPF is currently the dominant force in Rwanda, despite the fact that Tutsis make up less than 15% of the population.
Disenchanted members of the majority Hutu population suspect the authorities of bad faith. Some are quick to point out that the gacaca courts do not have the power to judge violations of human rights by the RPF before, during or after the genocide. The official response is that RPF "acts of vengeance", not sanctioned by the regime, cannot be put on the same level as planned genocide. The authorities say that alleged RPF crimes will continue to be tried by the ordinary courts.
The mandate of the gacaca courts is from October 1st, 1990, when the RPF invaded Rwanda, to the end of 1994. This is presented as a reconciliatory gesture by the current regime. Even if gacaca courts cannot try alleged RPF crimes, the context of invasion and war is likely to be invoked in the process of truth-telling about genocide.
Quite apart from the version of history that gacaca courts may come up with, personal and political interests are nevertheless likely to be at stake.
Hirondelle saw little evidence of political interference during judges' elections at the cell (lowest administrative) level, which is closest to the population. The cell level gacaca courts will judge only relatively minor crimes, although they will be responsible for reviewing the categories in which genocide suspects are placed and hence the penalties they face.
Some observers suggest that the risk of interference of all types is likely to be greater at the higher administrative levels. The stakes will be higher, for example, at the level of district level gacaca courts which will be judging Category Two genocide suspects. According to the law, people in this category may face life imprisonment.
The gacaca courts will have the power to judge suspects charged with all but the highest category of genocide crimes. Since 1996, Rwandan law has divided genocide suspects into four categories:
- Category One consists broadly of suspected planners, rapists and those who killed with "zeal" or "excessive wickedness". Such people will still be tried by the ordinary courts.
- Category Two consists broadly of suspected genocide perpetrators. They will be referred to gacaca courts at the district level.
- Category Three is defined as "the person who has committed or became accomplice of serious attacks without the intention of causing death to victims". Such suspects will be referred to gacaca courts at sector level.
- Category Four consists of "the person having committed offences against assets". Such people will be tried by gacaca courts at cell level.
Province level gacaca courts will serve as appeal courts. Appeals for each category are to be referred to the immediately higher administrative level.
Despite all the abovementioned risks, Rwandan citizens, officials and NGO representatives who spoke to Hirondelle expressed hope that gacaca would work. Their general message seemed to be: "don't let's try to undermine it, we don't have much alternative. Let's be vigilant, but let's wait and see".
JC/PHD/FH (RW_1011e)
OCTOBER 8th, 2001
RWANDA / JUSTICE
NEW JUSTICE SYSTEM WILL WORK, SAYS RWANDA ELECTION BOSS
Kigali/Arusha, October 8th, 2001 (FH) As Rwanda wound up four days of elections for "people's judges" in a new system of post-genocide traditional justice, the chief electoral organizer said he was optimistic that the new system, known as gacaca, would work.
"I am hopeful it will work," Protais Musoni, head of the electoral commission for gacaca, told Hirondelle late Saturday in Kigali. "Since it is drawing on what the Rwandese population know and understand, that gives it enough starting point. What may become critical is if the judges are really people of integrity. I think that's where the training has to come in, so that they understand their mission to the society of Rwanda, and so they have training to make them to be very impartial and correct. That will be very important."
Many of the judges are illiterate or lack much formal education, but they have been elected as upright members of society. They are to undergo a few months of training before gacaca trials start. Some 260,000 judges have been chosen for 11,000 gacaca courts to try all but the highest category of genocide suspects. These courts are being set up at four administrative levels (cell, sector, district and province) nationwide, and are expected to start holding trials sometime in the first half of 2002.
There are about 120,000 suspects held in the country's overflowing jails, but after five years of genocide trials in the existing courts, only a small percentage of cases have been judged. Both genocide survivors, detained suspects and their families are crying out for justice. The government hopes that gacaca will not only be able to clear the backlog of genocide cases, but that the process of "people's courts" will bring truth-telling and reconciliation in a divided society.
Musoni was on the government-appointed commission of 1998-99 that drew up the gacaca project, and is seen as one of its architects. "There was no other way," he says, "that you would increase the level of consciousness in the population on genocide, and the determination to refuse to be manipulated again. It is very important that the discussion takes so long, until people know that there was no reason to kill each other at all."
"It's a process, I would say, which is very new," says Musoni, "with quite a number of risks along the way, and I hope that the High Court will be very close to how the cases are being tried, explaining, guiding and so on, so that we end up resolving this issue.
"It will work," he continues, "because we had no other alternative. The fact that yes there are very difficult consequences of genocide to resolve. If you say OK people have participated in genocide, they must be punished. But you are going to punish a very big body of the population. You have to reconcile on that one. How do you do it? At the same time you must raise the level of thinking, that it is wrong to carry out acts against society, even if you think it is a big number of people that have done it".
"Another point, very important, is that those of us, the elite, who can manipulate the peasantry, know that we are creating the capacity within the population to be able to say no. We are also responsible. So there are quite a number of issues at stake, and as I say, it has to be guided, to be studied, to be reviewed, because it's a new thing."
Procedural problems
Musoni told Hirondelle that the elections had generally gone well, but that some re-runs had been necessary because of procedural hitches: "As you know, this election was being conducted by quite a large number of people at the lowest level of what we call the CPA (local administration committees). And although we did about four days of training, clearly you could see that there were some who didn't know what to do. But we had quite a big body of supervisors so that where there were mistakes, they would be corrected immediately."
The logistical requirements were nevertheless enormous, and Hirondelle noted that not all meetings had higher level supervisors. Asked if he was satisfied with the level of preparation, Musoni admitted he would have liked more time.
"We did prepare enough, although I would have been happy if we had had more time," he told Hirondelle. "As you know the (electoral) commission was created and we started our work 1st of August, so in effect we had only two months to prepare, to train the electoral officials, to sensitize the population, find the logistics and create the necessary paperwork that would guide those elections and so on. And so we had to work on a very tight schedule."
Musoni said that most of the problems had been at the lower level, and that subsequent elections had gone more smoothly. He expressed satisfaction at Thursday's high turnout of the population, which he estimated at about 91%.
"I was very pleased, the response was remarkable," he said. "When you consider that the gacaca jurisdiction is more social, and after genocide the kind of contradictions that are in the society, you would quite have expected less turnout. But surprisingly it was very good, so we are very happy."
He also confirmed a high participation of women, including a significant number of women judges elected. "You can see quite an increase, say for example over the March elections (of local administrators). There's more gender participation this time."
Musoni played down reports of ethnic polarization in some places: "Definitely you may find in certain areas more Tutsi than Hutu, or only Tutsi without Hutu. In other areas there are Hutu without Tutsi. So they can't go to look for the ethnic grouping that is not there," he said. "Where there was a mix, you could see that there wasn't any tendency at all, and I travelled quite a lot. I'm really proud that people tend now to go over it (ethnic polarization), especially the peasants. But even in the urban areas like Kigali, I could see a good mix coming up, so I don't see any polarization per se in this gacaca."
"People's" judges
Musoni confirmed that genocide survivors in a few places had been unhappy with some of the judges chosen. But he said this should not undermine the process: "I think the fact that people came and voted and that even afterwards there was a very high level of attendance shows that they have confidence in this process," he said. "Now if there is one who thinks there's a génocidaire in the court, he or she still has room to give evidence."
The gacaca courts have three levels: a General Assembly of the adult population, the Seat (19 judges) and its coordinating committee. According to the law, Musoni said, complaints could be taken to the General Assembly, which is empowered to remove judges if they are not performing properly. "We have been teaching that it is better that they use truth as early as possible, from now on. (…) There may be some who may not have been that forthright and went into the courts when they are not clean, but as I say it's a process. If you are not clean you will get off and other people will come in. So it's a cleansing process that will come up."
Asked about the low educational level of some of the judges, Musoni said that it could be a concern, but that to exclude the illiterate would be to exclude a large section of the population. "If you want the population to participate in trying these cases and so on, definitely you cannot put the educational limit as a condition. Where we had the educational condition would be at the level of organization and secretarial work. That was there. (..) The disadvantage of not being able to read is that they are not going to access information, they will depend on what they hear. But the advantage is that once they are there, they will own the process, they can from there somehow be determined that we don't get the same mess again."
Musoni said he believes Rwanda has a high stake in making sure the gacaca process works, and that the authorities, especially the Ministry of Justice and the High Court, will be on the alert. "There must be mechanisms to make sure that things don't go wrong," he told Hirondelle, "but as I said, I don't see any other alternative."
JC/PHD/FH (RW_1008E)
OCTOBER 7th, 2001
RWANDA/ JUSTICE
ELECTIONS FOR "PEOPLE’S JUDGES" END IN RWANDA
Kigali, October 7th, 2001 (FH) Elections for judges to preside over genocide cases in a new form of traditional courts ended in Rwanda on Sunday, reports the independent news agency Hirondelle.
Some 260,000 judges have over the last four days been elected at four administrative levels for the new courts known as gacaca. The "people’s judges" will hear trials in 11,000 gacaca courts countrywide.
The appointment of the judges started with village meetings on Thursday to approve a pool of judges. This was followed by subsequent rounds of elections at higher administrative levels. The law states that chosen judges should be citizens of high moral integrity.
Gacaca courts will judge all but the highest category of genocide suspects, who will still be tried by ordinary courts. Gacaca trials are expected to start in the first half of next year (2002). The law on gacaca, passed early this year, provides for reduced sentences for those who confess their crimes.
The Rwandan government says that Gacaca will expedite genocide trials in Rwanda and bring about reconciliation. Since the 1995 re-opening of courts in Rwanda, 6,000 genocide trials have been completed. An estimated 120,000 genocide suspects remain in detention in Rwanda awaiting trial. Only 13 courts in Rwanda currently handle genocide cases.
GG/JC/PHD/FH (RW_1007F)
OCTOBER 7th, 2001
RWANDA/ JUSTICE
RWANDAN GENOCIDE SUSPECTS WELCOME NEW JUSTICE SYSTEM
Kigali, October 7th, 2001 (FH) Rwandan genocide suspects are impatient for the start of new "people's courts" known as gacaca, designed to speed up genocide trials, a prisoners' representative said on Friday.
"We are happy about gacaca," detained suspect Alexander Muterahejuru told Hirondelle in Kigali central prison. Muterahejuru is also president of a commission to educate prisoners on gacaca and encourage them to confess their crimes.
He himself says he has been detained for seven years without trial on allegations he calls "malicious and baseless". "I am one of the people waiting to be given back my freedom by gacaca," he told Hirondelle. Muterahejuru said he had been a judge of the Rwandan Supreme Court at the time of the genocide.
On Sunday, Rwanda ended four days of elections for some 260,000 "people's judges" to hear trials in 11,000 gacaca courts at four administrative levels. The appointment of the judges started with village meetings on Thursday to approve a pool of judges. It has been followed by subsequent rounds of appointments at the higher administrative levels. The law states that judges should be chosen as citizens of high moral integrity.
Gacaca courts will judge all but the highest category of genocide suspects, who will still be tried by the ordinary courts. Gacaca trials are expected to start in the first half of next year (2002). The law on gacaca, passed earlier this year, provides for reduced sentences for those who confess their crimes.
Prison gacaca
According to Muterahejuru, 1,127 of Kigali prison's 6,000 genocide suspects have confessed to participating in the genocide since late 1999 when the prison gacaca commission was set up. He said that detainees meet in small groups according to where they lived during the genocide, and proceed to tell the truth about what happened in their communities.
Dressed in the prisoners' attire of pink shirt and shorts, and flanked by five other members of the commission, Muterahejuru explained that compilations of confessions made during such meetings were handed over to the Prosecutor's office.
"We in prisons are already practising gacaca, even before it has started," Muterahejuru said. "We all know that terrible things happened in Rwanda. The duty of our commission is to encourage our brothers to tell the truth about what they did and what they did not do."
The prisoners' gacaca commission, approved by the Prosecutor General, also conducts sessions to inform prisoners about Rwanda's gacaca law, which came onto the Statute book earlier this year. While the male suspects have their commission, female prisoners have also set up a similar commission in their wing of the jail.
GG/JC/PHD/FH (RW_1007e)
OCTOBER 5th, 2001
RWANDA/ JUSTICE
WOMEN TAKE CENTRE STAGE IN ELECTION OF "PEOPLE'S JUDGES"
By Julia Crawford
Murambi/Kigali, October 5th, 2001 (FH) – If Murambi sector, a rural hillside area some 40 kilometres from Kigali, is anything to go by, Rwanda's women will be playing an important role in the country's upcoming system of post-genocide traditional justice, or "gacaca". Not only was there a strong female presence at Thursday's public meetings to choose "people's judges", but women spoke up, and many of them will be among the judges.
In one cell in Murambi, for example, eight of the 19 gacaca judges chosen to serve at the cell (lowest administrative unit) level are women. One of the six judges delegated to the General Assembly at sector level, and therefore eligible to be a judge at higher levels, is also a woman.
"I am very proud," she told Hirondelle. "I hope that I will be able to make my contribution to the search for truth without any consideration of a person's ethnic group, religion or physical appearance."
Asked about the representation of women in gacaca courts, she replied: "I think it will change things. Suspicion will disappear."
Other women at cell meetings in Murambi also expressed the view that women judges will be "more honest" and more likely to inspire truth telling about what happened during the 1994 genocide. They were not surprised that women were starting to take a more assertive role because, as one said, "it is the women who are bearing all the burdens here".
This area has a particularly high proportion of women heads of household, because their husbands have either been killed or imprisoned on genocide related charges. The local prison population is high. But the women, Hutu and Tutsi alike, are all struggling to support families alone, and they all want justice. They want gacaca to work, because the existing justice system has proved unable to cope with the aftermath of the genocide.
Some 11,000 gacaca courts are being set up at four administrative levels throughout the country, to judge all but the highest category of genocide suspects. There are currently only thirteen ordinary courts trying genocide related crimes.
Indirect elections of judges for the higher levels (sector, district and province) are taking place from Friday to Sunday. Gacaca trials are expected to begin sometime in the first half of next year (2002).
Public meetings
According to a special law approved earlier this year, the judges must be people of integrity, honesty and good conduct, free of any suspected involvement in the genocide, "free from the spirit of sectarianism and discrimination" and "characterised by a spirit of sharing speech". People in government posts, exercising political activities or still in the security forces are not eligible.
Thursday's open-air public meetings to choose cell-level gacaca judges saw a massive turnout. At one cell where Hirondelle followed the meeting, local administration organizers said 331 of the 353 adults entitled to vote had turned out. One hundred and two proposed candidates had been put forward by the "nyumba kumi", units of ten households making up the cell. These people were lined up, ready to be presented to the crowd gathered on the grass.
Red megaphone in hand, the coordinator began by reminding the meeting that candidates must be over 18 and free from any suspicion of involvement in the genocide. Proposed candidates were then handed the megaphone one by one and proceeded to present themselves: name, name of parents, age, number of children.
After each one, the coordinator asked the crowd if they had anything to say. Some were accepted without comment. Sometimes one or more people would come forward to take the megaphone and criticize the candidate, although the atmosphere remained good humoured. Most of the criticisms were related to age, health or family responsibilities that might prevent the candidate from fulfilling the obligations of a gacaca judge.
For example, a young man of 21 was rejected because he was said to have a number of orphans in his care, and the meeting felt he would not have time to be a judge as well. One woman was criticized for "living alone", but other members of the crowd said this was not a valid criticism, and she was accepted as a candidate.
A few of the accusations were more serious. For example, one man was accused of having participated in massacres and another for "perturbing security". Accepted candidates then went to sit together on the grass, while rejected candidates also went to sit together. Organizers explained that if there were not enough "accepted candidates" then the "rejected" ones would be given a chance to explain themselves to the crowd, and might be reconsidered. This was not necessary, however, owing to the large number of candidates.
According to the organizers, 84 of the 102 proposed candidates were accepted and 18 were "criticized". Out of the 84 accepted, 33 were women. The 84 candidates then had to choose six of their number to go to the General Assembly of the sector level jurisdiction, and 19 to be the judges at the cell level. Each was asked to write six names down on a piece of paper.
Organizers then collected the papers and proceeded to chalk up the votes for each name on a blackboard. This exercise took some time, but resulted in the pronouncement of first the six and then the 19. The 19 judges were then sworn in.
JC/PHD/FH (RW_1005E)
OCTOBER 4th, 2001
RWANDA JUSTICE
RWANDANS TURN OUT EN MASSE TO ELECT "PEOPLE'S" JUDGES
Kigali/October 4th, 2001 (FH) – Rwandans turned out massively on Thursday to elect 260,000 "people's judges" for an adapted form of post-genocide traditional courts known as gacaca. Participation was over 90% in some rural cells (lowest administrative unit) visited by Hirondelle, although appeared to be slightly lower in the capital Kigali.
Hirondelle noted that in the cells visited there was high participation of women. There was also a high number of women nominated as candidates to be judges.
The atmosphere was good-natured, despite the fact that people were given the opportunity to object to proposed candidates in a public meeting. Where local defence forces were present, they were discreet and the crowds were disciplined.
Criticisms raised against candidates were mostly linked to ill health or family obligations which the community felt would prevent them from doing their job of judge properly. Some were also criticized for social behaviour, such as drinking too much. Hirondelle noted a few examples, however, of more serious accusations.
For example, in Gatwa cell (Murambi sector, Buliza district) in Kigali Rural province, one man was accused of having participated in massacres and another for "perturbing security". They were both rejected as potential judges.
In Ryabaheshwa cell (Muyumbu sector, Bicumbi district), also in Kigali Rural, one man met total silence after he presented himself. "Do you have anything to say about him?" asked the local administrator running the meeting. "He has just come out of prison for genocide," said a member of the crowd. Others then called out that the man had never been convicted. He was accepted as a potential judge.
In Katabaro cell (Kimisagara sector, Nyarugenge district) in the capital Kigali one man was accused and rejected for refusing to shelter a woman during the 1994 genocide. "He refused to shelter me in April (1994, during the genocide)," his accuser told the crowd. "He told me to go and die elsewhere."
According to a special law approved earlier this year, the judges must be people of integrity, honesty and good conduct, free of any suspected involvement in the genocide, "free from the spirit of sectarianism and discrimination" and "characterised by a spirit of sharing speech". People in government posts, exercising political activities or still in the security forces are not eligible.
Some 11,000 gacaca courts are to be set up at four administrative levels throughout the country, to judge all but the highest category of genocide suspects. There are currently only thirteen ordinary courts trying genocide related crimes. Indirect elections of judges for the higher levels is to take place from Friday to Sunday.
Gacaca judges will not be paid but will be given some training. They are to serve until trials are completed. Gacaca trials are expected to start sometime in the first half of next year.
JC/GG/WK/PHD/FH (RW_1004e)
OCTOBER 2nd, 2001
RWANDA/ JUSTICE
RWANDA TO ELECT "PEOPLE'S" JUDGES FOR GENOCIDE TRIALS
By Julia Crawford
Kigali, October 2nd, 2001 (FH) – Rwanda is preparing for countrywide elections on Thursday of some 300,000 "elders" to serve as judges for its much-heralded "gacaca" system of post-genocide traditional justice. The way the elections are conducted, and the people who are chosen as judges, will be crucial for the success or failure of this unprecedented experiment in justice and reconciliation.
"In the last two months we've held meetings at grassroots level four times," says the vice-chairman of the national commission responsible for organizing the elections, Mussa Fazil Harelimana. "They (the people) asked lots of questions, we gave them lots of answers. I am very optimistic, I think it will be a success."
On Monday, which was a public holiday for national unity day, senior government officials including Prime Minister Bernard Makuza travelled to various parts of the country in a last-minute consciousness-raising campaign. They called for all Rwandans to play their part in the upcoming gacaca system, which the government sees as vital to putting the country's tragic past behind it.
Seven years after the 1994 genocide that left some 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus dead, the Rwandan authorities recognize that the existing justice system cannot dispatch justice speedily enough to resolve the country's chronic prison overcrowding. The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is much slower still, and has only a mandate to judge the top suspects. Meanwhile in Rwanda both genocide survivors and the country's 120,000 prisoners are crying out for justice, while potential witnesses are dying, notably of AIDS.
Rwandan Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo has said that with gacaca, it should take only five years to dispatch cases related to the genocide. The government's hope is that the new, "people's courts", based on an adapted form of traditional justice, will also promote truth- telling and reconciliation. "The advantage is that everyone knows everyone else," a Rwandan prosecutor told Hirondelle earlier this year. "The genocide was committed in broad daylight. Everyone knows what everyone else did."
The question is, however, whether everyone will be prepared to tell the truth. This is likely to depend not only on the current make-up of the communities, but also on the confidence they have in their judges. The first test of the truth-telling process will come with the election of the gacaca judges on October 4th, which has been declared a public holiday.
"People's judges"
On Thursday, the adult residents of each cell (lowest administrative unit) will be called to a public meeting and invited to choose 24 elders to serve as judges. The selected judges will subsequently choose five of their number to serve at the next administrative level up. At least 100 people must turn up to each cell meeting before it can go ahead.
Meetings will be run by local administrators, who have received training from the electoral commission. "We have trained them on the principles for the elections," Harelimana told Hirondelle.
Each meeting will be asked to nominate potential judges. The "candidates" will then present their curriculum vitae briefly to the population, who will be asked to comment and to vote on the spot.
According to a special law approved earlier this year, the judges must be people of integrity, honesty and good conduct, free of any suspected involvement in the genocide, "free from the spirit of sectarianism and discrimination" and "characterised by a spirit of sharing speech". People in government posts, exercising political activities or still in the security forces are not eligible. The judges will not be paid but will receive some training.
Rwandans who spoke to Hirondelle said that communities might also be expected to rule certain people out on the basis of unacceptable social behaviour, such as wife-beating, public drunkenness, etc. In any case, the exercise is likely to involve a public airing of neighbours' credentials and could give rise to both tension and emotion.
Some sources suggest that meeting organizers may present proposed lists of "candidates", to speed up the process and prevent there being a lack of sufficient names proposed. However, Harelimana said tests by the electoral commission suggested there would be no dearth of candidates. He said there were no prior candidates, election campaigns or lists, although he admitted the possibility that lists could have been compiled "in one percent of cases".
Four administrative levels
Gacaca courts are to be set up at four administrative levels nationwide. The lowest level is the cell, followed by the sector, district and province. Elections at cell level will be followed by the designation of judges to higher levels by the chosen judges themselves. These subsequent, indirect elections are set to follow from October 5th to 7th .
The gacaca courts will have the power to judge suspects charged with all but the highest category of genocide crimes. Since 1996, Rwandan law has divided genocide suspects into four categories:
- Category One consists broadly of suspected planners, rapists and those who killed with "zeal" or "excessive wickedness". Such people will still be tried by the ordinary courts.
- Category Two consists broadly of suspected genocide perpetrators. They will be referred to gacaca courts at the district level.
- Category Three is defined as "the person who has committed or became accomplice of serious attacks without the intention of causing death to victims". Such suspects will be referred to gacaca courts at sector level.
- Category Four consists of "the person having committed offences against assets". Such people will be tried by gacaca courts at cell level.
Province level gacaca courts will serve as appeal courts, as appeals for each category are to be referred to the immediately higher administrative level. While the cell-level courts will judge only the more minor crimes, they are also charged with the job of reviewing the categorization of all suspects.
Doubts on the ground?
The overwhelming majority of Rwandans appear to support the idea of gacaca. However, various groups have expressed concern about the way it is being organized.
Many in the Hutu community would like to see the gacaca courts also look at crimes committed by the ruling pro-Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The authorities admit that acts of "vengeance" did take place, but say this is not on the same level as planned genocide. They say RPF offenders will be tried by the existing courts, as has already been done in the military courts.
Survivors' group Ibuka said at a congress this September that it wanted various amendments and improvements to the gacaca law. For example, it wants that judges may be elected in the place where they lived at the time of the genocide, and not just where they are living now. (Judges may also be witnesses, although they must then desist from judging on that case.)
Ibuka also called for a pre-gacaca census of where every Rwandan citizen was living at the time of the genocide. It urged government measures to stop campaigning against survivors being elected as judges. Such campaigns are allegedly being carried out because survivors might bring accusations against suspects.
Ibuka also wants more security guarantees for judges and witnesses. For example, it urged the State to ensure transport for survivor witnesses no longer living where they did during the genocide and where their houses have been destroyed. Ibuka also wants the government to provide accommodation for such people if they have to spend the night in the place where they are testifying.
The survivors' organization called on the government to ensure that a law regulating the national Compensation Fund (for victims of the genocide) be brought onto the Statute book before gacaca trials start. It suggested that pilot trials be carried out in a few places before gacaca is launched nationwide, and that testimonies on rape and sexual violence be held behind closed doors.
JC/FH (RW_1002e)
AUGUST 9th, 2001
RWANDA / JUSTICE
GACACA JUDGES TO BE ELECTED ON OCTOBER 4th
Gitarama/Kigali, August 9th, 2001 (FH) - Rwandans are to elect 260,000 judges to popular courts or "gacaca" on October 4th, according to a calendar set by the national Commission on gacaca elections. The announcement came at the end of a two-day meeting of the six-member Commission in the central Rwandan town of Gitarama, also attended by several dozen civil servants and delegates who have been involved in the preparation of gacaca at the level of the provinces (formerly prefectures).
According to the Commission, it will send representatives to each cell ("cellule" in French) on October 4th to supervise the elections. The cell is the lowest administrative level in Rwanda, with about 10,000 cells nationwide. The Commission will call on professionals and civil society elegates to boost the number of its election supervisors, and will be holding meetings to this end in the run-up to October 4th.
The Commission's representatives will, on election day, meet with the inhabitants of each cell, gathered at a General Assembly. According to Commission Vice-President Cheikh Moussa Fazil Harelimana, each assembly will be asked: "Do you have among you persons of high morality and integrity?" Harelimana says there will be no candidates as such, but rather the judges will be chosen by the population. Each cell is to elect 19 judges, meaning that some 260,000 will be elected throughout the country on the same day.
According to Rwanda's "organic law" on gacaca courts, judges must fulfil a series of conditions. They must be people of integrity, honesty and good conduct who have never been sentenced to more than six months in prison and are above suspicion of involvement in genocide or crimes against humanity. They must be "free of sectarian and discriminatory attitudes" and known for a spirit of encouraging dialogue.
Two days after the elections, the judges chosen by each cell will meet amongst themselves to designate their representatives at the sector level (a sector comprises several cells), and so on up to the level of the district (commune) and province.
Gacaca courts will be set up at four administrative levels nationwide, the lowest level being the cell, followed by the sector, district and province. At least one "Gacaca Jurisdiction" (comprising General Assembly, Seat of 19 judges and Coordinating Committee) will normally be set up inside each administrative district at each level. These courts will have the power to judge suspects charged with all but the highest category of genocide crimes.
Gacaca courts will judge genocide suspects of the fourth (cell-level), third (sector-level) and second (district-level) categories, while those at district level will be solely for appeals. Category One genocide suspects (planners), who risk the death sentence if convicted, will continue to be tried by the national courts, i.e. by professional judges.
The six members of the Commission on gacaca elections were appointed by presidential decree at the end of July this year. They were given a three-month mandate, which ends on October 31st. After that date, by which they must submit a final report, they are to return to their normal employment.
The Commission is chaired by the Secretary-General of the Local Administration and Social Affairs Ministry, Protais Musoni. Vice-president Harelimana is an advisor to the Supreme Court's department on gacaca jurisdictions.
For the last six years, Rwanda has been faced with a judicial crisis as to how to handle trials of about 120,000 suspects charged with crimes related to the 1994 genocide. Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in the 100 days of slaughter that followed the April 6th 1994 downing of former president Juvénal Habyarimana's plane.
The long-awaited gacaca courts are aimed at speeding up trials, freeing up space in the country's overcrowded jails and promoting national reconciliation. After the October 4th elections, the "people's judges" will be given training before the gacaca courts can start work. Given the complicated logistics involved, observers say gacaca trials are now unlikely to begin before May 2002.
WK/JC/PHD/FH (RW_0809E)
JULY 6th, 2001
______________________________________________________________
RWANDA / JUSTICE
RWANDAN COURT SENTENCES ELEVEN TO DEATH FOR GENOCIDE
Kigali, July 7th, 2001 (FH) - A court in Gikongoro, southwest Rwanda, on Friday sentenced eleven people to death in a joint trial of 28 people from Kinyamakara commune charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.
Four others were acquitted, seven were sentenced to life imprisonment and six were given prison sentences of between six and fifteen years. Of these six, four pleaded guilty.
As well as the four people acquitted, the court also ordered that the accused Masabo Nyangezi be immediately released. He was sentenced to six years in jail but has already spent seven years in preventive detention.
Masabo was director-general at the Rwandan environment and tourism ministry in 1994, and is well known to the Rwandan public as a singer-songwriter. He fled the capital Kigali during the genocide and took refuge in his home commune of Kinyamakara, where he stayed until his arrest in August 1994.
He was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. The prosecution alleged in particular that he had personally led attacks against Tutsi. However, the court found him guilty of participating in a single attack against the Bucakara family.
Some 160 civil parties put in compensation claims in the case of the 28. However, the court only retained about 100 claims, because the other parties had not submitted the necessary proof that they were related to the victims. The court ordered that they should be paid compensation totalling 152 million Rwandan francs (about 350,000 US dollars).
The trial began on November 28th 2000, initially with 30 accused. One of them died before the case got under way while another, former deputy-mayor of Kinyamakara Enoch Mayira, managed to escape from prison. The prosecution had wanted him tried in absentia, but the court said he would be tried when he was found.
WK/JC/FH (RW_0706E)
JUNE 19th, 2001
___________________________________________________________________
RWANDA / JUSTICE
NEIGHBOURS ACCUSE A PRISONER IN GACACA "TRIAL RUN"
Katarari (Kigali), June 19th, 2001 (FH) - A crowd of about 2,000 has been waiting for two hours under a scorching sun in the Katatari district of Gashora (Bugesera region), about 50 kilometres south of the Rwandan capital Kigali. Around midday, a truck arrives carrying prisoners dressed in their pink jail clothes. The vehicle has hardly stopped before the people crowd around it. "Oh there's so and so," they cry, and continue to comment for about 15 minutes before going to take their places.
At around 13.00 hours local time, the Nyamata state prosecutor begins to speak to the crowd, using a megaphone: "Here are your children, your neighbours," he tells them. "You know what happened in our country in 1994. They are suspected of having participated in the genocide. You are going to tell us what you know about them, either against them or in their defence, how they behaved during that macabre period. Beware of becoming too emotional. Don't make false accusations. Do not be afraid of telling the truth. Your local authorities are here. I have come with the regional chief of police. They are there to protect you whenever you might need it."
The prosecutor then summons the first prisoner and gives him the megaphone. The prisoner introduces himself, giving his name, names of father and mother, birthplace etc. "Who knows this man?" the prosecutor asks the crowd. Hands are raised, shyly at first. One by one, people go to the middle of the large circle formed by the crowd, and tell what they know about the prisoner. And so it goes on for each of the 18 detainees, lasting until about 16.30 local time. As the process goes on, people speak with
more confidence.
Accusations are particularly serious against one prisoner. "He killed my son-in-law and made my daughter a widow," says an old man who survived the genocide. "He and his band of killers wore hats of green banana leaves and carried big clubs. They said that all those who had given their daughters in marriage to Tutsis should also be exterminated." His daughter (the widow) and numerous other people accuse the man for the deaths of a good half-dozen families, plus commando operations into neighbouring sectors. Emotions are running high, with tears now flowing down many cheeks.
Another prisoner is accused of being the local leader of MRND, the former single party of the late president Juvénal Habyarimana, whose death on April 6th, 1994, sparked the genocide. "He used his truck to act as driver for the Interahamwe," people claim. "The militiamen used machetes stored at his place."
Another prisoner is said to have followed " the paramilitary training for Interahamwe. He learned to kill as many Tutsis as possible in a short time. He killed brothers, sisters, children of many of his neighbours and friends".
"That one there almost killed me with a club" says another member of the crowd. "He took my bicycle. I managed to escape, but he got my young brother who was lagging behind me on the path."
Everything is brought out into the open, as the heat of the day becomes more and more oppressive. But for about 10 of the prisoners, the testimonies are positive. One of them was not a permanent resident of this sector. People do not know how he behaved during the genocide. The prosecutor says he will be sent back to his birthplace (Sake, Kibungo, in the southeast) so that his file can be followed up there.
The prosecutor's team records everything. At the end of the meeting, someone in the crowd tells the prosecutor: "You should have brought us the list of these prisoners well beforehand. That way we would have been able to say lots of things about them." But the prosecutor replies: "No! We don't want to run the risk that people set up witness syndicates, either for the prosecution or the defence."
"By June 21st, all prisoners hailing from Gashora district are to have been presented to their neighbours on the hills," the prosecutor told Hirondelle after the Katarari meeting. "In general there is a big turnout for these meetings and people speak with sincerity. They tend to be shy at the beginning, especially the survivors. But in the end it works well."
The prosecutor further said that in the districts under his responsibility -- Gashora, Ngenda and Nyamata (formerly Kanzenze) -- a total of 431 prisoners are to be brought before the population, with the aim of "completing those files that are still incomplete". This operation is under way throughout Rwanda and must, according to the law, be completed by June 30th, 2001.
"The advantage is that everyone knows everyone else," the prosecutor told Hirondelle. "The genocide was committed in broad daylight. Everyone knows what everyone else did. All the prisoners who are said to be innocent will be released in the coming days, and for the others, proceedings will go on in the normal way."
The deputy-mayor of Gashora also expressed approval. "This is a good trial run for gacaca, where justice is to be rendered by the citizens themselves on their friends, neighbours or relatives," he said.
Rwandan authorities say that the new system of "gacaca", based on a form of traditional justice, could begin at the end of this year. Judges have yet to be elected and trained for these "people's courts".
WK/PHD/JC/FH (RW_0619E)
JUNE 15th, 2001
___________________________________________________________________
RWANDA / JUSTICE
NINE SENTENCED TO DEATH IN RWANDA'S BIGGEST GENOCIDE TRIAL
Kigali, June 15th, 2001 (FH) - A Rwandan court on Friday sentenced nine people to death after the country's biggest genocide trial, involving 126 accused. Thirty other defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, 62 were given sentences of between four and 20 years, and 25 others were acquitted in the trial, which lasted seven months.
The Nyamata court (south of Kigali) sentenced the nine for genocide and crimes against humanity in a verdict handed down in Rilima prison, about 50 kilometres south of the capital. The prosecutor had urged the death penalty for 25 of the accused.
The accused, all peasants from the surrounding region, were charged in connection with massacres of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Charges included genocide, crimes against humanity, conspiracy to commit genocide, complicity in genocide and looting. Three were also charged with rape.
The nine people sentenced to death were on the government's "Category One" list of top genocide suspects. According to the verdict, they will be deprived permanently of all civic rights (right to vote, etc.). The court ordered that their goods and property be seized to serve as compensation for victims.
Reduced sentences for confession
Thirty-four of the convicts received reduced sentences because they had pleaded guilty, confessed and expressed remorse. The leading accused, Léopold Twagirayezu (the trial was entitled "Twagirayezu and others") received a sentence of only seven years. Twagirayezu was only 23 at the time of the genocide. He confessed to having committed about half a dozen murders himself and having directed hordes of Interahamwe militia who massacred about 10,000 Tutsi refugees in Nyamata church and the neighboring communal offices.
Twagirayezu took the initiative to plead guilty, ask forgiveness and give a full confession. He cooperated closely with the judicial authorities in encouraging his co-detainees to do the same. The prosecution had urged a life sentence against him, while the defence was asking for an acquittal.
"I am really satisfied in large part by the way that the trial has been conducted and by the verdict," one of the defence lawyers, Hermogène Higaniro, told Hirondelle. "Of course I cannot say with 100% certainty that there were no errors. Considering the number of accused , there could have been some mistakes. But I think it was a good judgement." About ten lawyers were assigned by the Rwandan Bar to assist the accused and civil parties.
Applause
The 25 acquittals were greeted with sustained applause, to the extent that the judges had to call the public to order. Many family members of both the accused and the victims had come to hear the judgement.
"The judgement is over 300 pages long," said the court. "Reading it all out would take several days." The three judges therefore chose to read out a summary, which nevertheless took more than two hours. The proceedings were conducted in a big makeshift tent of plastic sheeting supported by wooden poles.
The judges patiently read out a litany of horrors imputed to the accused. "Victims were cut up into pieces. They were tortured to death with clubs, machetes, swords, iron rods, arrows, lances, grenades and other firearms. One victim had to dig his own tomb, his torturers made him keep lying in it until the size was right, then buried him alive. Many other victims were thrown live into pit latrines."
"It was not easy to judge such a big case, involving 126 accused," Nyamata court president Fred Burende told Hirondelle. "The first difficulty was logistical. The tribunal had to visit places all over the country because the case involved co-accused, accomplices or witnesses in lots or other regions of Rwanda, for example in Cyangugu (southwest Rwanda, about 300 km from Kigali) or in Ruhengeri (northwest Rwanda, about 100 km from the capital). We needed paper, vehicles and fuel. The Ministry of Justice and the Belgian NGO Réseau des Citoyens (Citizens' Network) helped us a lot."
The court ordered that the 25 acquitted persons be immediately released. In addition, Twagirayezu and about a dozen others with prison sentences of less than seven years will be able to rejoin their families after being in preventive detention for years (since the end of 1994 in many cases).
385 people presented themselves as civil parties in the case. They were awarded damages totalling 2,472 billion Rwandan francs, equivalent to about $6 million. Those found guilty are to put their assets together to pay this sum, plus the costs of the trial (FRw 194,000 francs) and taxes (FRw 98,9 million).
The defence plans to appeal, especially for those sentenced to death. "It is our duty," lawyer Higaniro told Hirondelle. According to the law, the appeal must be lodged within fifteen days of the judgement.
This is Rwanda's biggest case since genocide trials began in December 1996. Some 125,000 prisoners are languishing in the country's overcrowded jails, of whom 115,000 are accused of genocide. Only about 6,000 have so far been tried.
WK/JC/FH (RW_0615E)
MAY 4th, 2001
___________________________________________________________________
RWANDA/ JUSTICE
RWANDANS EXPRESS MIXED FEELINGS ON NEW COURT SYSTEM
By Gabriel Gabiro and Julia Crawford
Kigali/Arusha, May 4th, 2001 (FH) - "To us, it's another way of belittling the worst crimes of mankind," Dominique Nsanzuwera, 57, a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, says of a new court system to be introduced in Rwanda to try genocide cases. There is widespread support in Rwanda for the new system, known as gacaca. But genocide survivors often remain resistant to the idea and members of the public, who are supposed to participate in gacaca trials, say they are not well informed about how the trials will be conducted.
The government has been conducting a "sensitization campaign" on gacaca for many months. But it would seem that briefings are often perceived as too short and not concrete enough.
Gacaca courts are to be based on an ancient form of traditional Rwandan justice. Persons of high moral integrity elected from their communities will decide the fate of thousands of genocide suspects languishing in crowded prisons across Rwanda. The courts are expected to start functioning later this year. Gacaca courts will try all but Category One top genocide suspects.
In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu opponents of the former regime were massacred, Rwanda is faced with a backlog of trials of about 120,000 genocide suspects. At the current speed of trials in conventional Rwandan courts, the government estimates it would take some 200 years to complete genocide trials. But Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo told Hirondelle that gacaca should take only five years.
The government also hopes that it will promote national reconciliation by offering the possibility of reduced sentences, especially for those that confess their crimes.
Impressive logistics planned
If all goes on schedule, Rwanda will in a few months start putting in place some 11,000 gacaca courts and 250,000 to 300,000 gacaca judges and officials to try genocide cases.
Independent surveys carried out by various organizations indicate overwhelming support (80 percent of Rwandans on average) for the gacaca system, or at least for the concept.
The government, however, is yet to fully convince the two unseen parties involved: victims and survivors of the genocide on the one hand, and suspects of genocide crimes and their relatives on the other. A major concern is the competence of the gacaca judges, who will not necessarily have any legal background, and whether or not the judges will be impartial.
"The truth in Rwanda is that we have two parts in our society, towards which more or less everyone is inclined: those who killed and those who were killed. It is difficult to get a holy person," says Rwandan journalist Safari Gaspard..
There is also concern about whether the gacaca courts, to be responsible for handling both prosecution and defence, will pay enough heed to defence rights. Prisoners and their families are keen to see trials start quickly, but also have reservations.
" The problem is that it's taking too long to start. I want to see my son get cleared of crimes he did not commit," says Karinganire, 62, of Gisenyi. He is quick to add, however: "God should intervene. The judges won't have sufficient knowledge of the law. I shudder when I think of the life of my son in the hands of such judges."
The government plans to carry out short courses in law for all judges. The idea is that gacaca justice should largely be based on the wisdom of basic principles of social justice.
But many survivors also remain sceptical. "I don't trust these judges," says Theresa Uwingabiye, 39, a survivor of the genocide whose three sons and a daughter were killed in the genocide. "Some will be relatives of the accused. How will they condemn their own sons?" Theresa says that adapting the traditional justice system is not appropriate to judging genocide. "Gacaca is a mild way of settling minor scores," she says, "not criminal cases."
Gacaca law provides that case files of people with relatives in the trial jury will be transferred to other gacaca courts. The government also contends that any malpractice will be handled by gacaca legal advisors from the Supreme Court. "There's also room for appeal," says Rwandan Justice Minister Mucyo.
GG/JC/FH (RW_0504e)
APRIL 30th, 2001
___________________________________________________________________
RWANDA / JUSTICE
RWANDA PLANS IMPRESSIVE LOGISTICS FOR NEW COURT SYSTEM
Kigali/Arusha, April 30th, 2001 (FH) - Rwanda plans to create some 11,000 grassroots courts with between 250,000 and 300,000 elected judges when it launches its so-called gacaca project, said Vice-President of the Supreme Court in charge of Gacaca Aloysie Cyanzayire in a radio debate on Sunday.
The long awaited gacaca project is based on an ancient form of traditional justice. An "organic law" laying down the workings of the system has been approved by parliament and by the country's Constitutional Court. It was published in the Official Journal of March 15th, 2001, meaning that it has now come into force.
The government hopes gacaca will help resolve Rwanda's chronic problem of prison overcrowding, promote national reconciliation and speed up the pace of genocide trials. At the current rate of about 1,000 per year, dealing with all genocide and crimes against humanity cases would take more than a century. Cyanzayire said on Sunday that gacaca should last only five years.
Last March, Cyanzayire said that gacaca judges could be elected at the end of May or beginning of June this year "if all goes well". She said one of the conditions would be publication of all the necessary legal texts.
In particular, a presidential decree is still needed to define how elections for gacaca jurisdictions (General Assembly, Seat of 19 judges and Coordinating Committee) will be organized. Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo said in the same debate on Sunday that the bill was being finalized and would shortly be presented to the cabinet for approval. The President of the Supreme Court must also publish the operating rules for the gacaca courts.
Training gacaca judges
Before taking up their posts, the gacaca judges, who will not be trained lawyers, are to benefit from short training sessions in their home areas. The original idea was to run such courses simultaneously throughout the country. However, Cyanzayire said that would require more than 3,000 trainers and had proved impossible. She added that some one thousand trainers would now be available, including career magistrates, lawyers, law professors and students, and that they would themselves need some preparatory training.
In March, Cyanzayire said that the election of the judges could be followed by their training in July and August and that gacaca courts could begin their work around the end of September. Before proceeding with trials, they will have to draw up lists of genocide suspects, categorize the suspects and collect evidence.
Some 125, 000 people are currently held in Rwandan jails, of whom 115,000 are accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. Since 1996, Rwandan law has divided such suspects into four categories. Gacaca courts will be responsible for trying suspects classed in Categories Two, Three and Four. Category One suspects will still be answerable to the existing national courts. A new, updated Category One list published three weeks ago contains 2,898 names.
Category One consists of "planners, organizers, instigators, supervisors and leaders of the crime of genocide or of crimes against humanity", perpetrators of sexual torture or violence, and notorious murderers whose criminal acts were marked by "zeal or excessive malice". Category Two consists of "persons whose criminal acts or whose acts of criminal participation place them among the perpetrators, conspirators or accomplices of intentional homicide or of serious attacks" which caused death or were intended to cause death. Category Three is of those who allegedly committed or were accomplice to serious attacks, without the intention of causing death to victims, while Category Four is of people suspected of "having committed offences against assets".
Justice Minister Mucyo said the first gacaca trials would concentrate on suspects who had pleaded guilty and confessed their crimes. In March, the minister said that 20,000 prisoners had confessed to genocide and crimes against humanity.
Gacaca court files are to be kept at administrative offices at the sector level, but out of 1,500 sectors countrywide, only 500 so far have suitable offices. Cyanzayire said the government had promised to make sure that every sector was provided with suitable premises for the files. She said that the transport of prisoners would require a large amount of vehicles and fuel.
WK/JC/PHD/FH (RW_0430e)
april 2ND 2001
______________________________________________
RWANDA PREPARES FOR UNPRECEDENTED JUSTICE SYSTEM
By Gabriel Gabiro and Julia Crawford
Kigali/Arusha, April 2nd, 2001 (FH) - Rwandans are readying themselves for a new justice system, aimed at bringing thousands of prisoners before "people's courts" on genocide related charges. The government hopes the new system will help resolve Rwanda's chronic problem of prison overcrowding, and also promote national reconciliation. It expects that the new "gacaca" courts, based on an ancient form of traditional Rwandan justice, will start working before the end of this year.
"We are held between cries of people suffering in prisons without trial, and victims of the genocide who can't wait much longer to see justice done," Rwandan Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo told Hirondelle in Kigali.
For the last six years, Rwanda has been faced with a judicial crisis as to how to handle trials of about 120,000 suspects charged with crimes related to the 1994 genocide. Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in the 100 days of slaughter that followed the April 6th 1994 downing of former president Juvénal Habyarimana's plane.
Since its courts began functioning again in 1997, Rwanda has completed only about 2,500 genocide cases. At that speed, the government estimates that it would take 200 years to finalize all genocide cases.
Of the 2,500 cases so far completed by the national courts, about 400 people have been sentenced to death, 22 of whom were executed in 1997. Others have received various sentences ranging from life to a few years imprisonment. About 700 have been acquitted.
Rwanda currently has 12 court chambers countrywide handling genocide-related cases. The gacaca system is expected to be composed of about 10,000 courts, with an estimated 400,000 court officials.
An "organic law" setting out the operation of gacaca courts has now been passed by parliament and approved by Rwanda's Constitutional Court, although other pieces of implementing legislation are still in the pipeline. Gacaca judges still have to be elected and to undergo training. Vice-President of the Supreme Court in charge of Gacaca Aloysie Cyanzayire said last month that the judges could be elected at the end of May or beginning of June "if all goes well".
The law states that these judges are to be chosen by the local population, from among Rwandans of integrity, honesty and good conduct. It is unclear as yet what form their training will take, although it is expected to be of relatively short duration. Kigali is hoping that donor countries will make good on their promises of support for gacaca, otherwise financing could also be a problem.
"Gacaca Jurisdictions"
Gacaca courts will be set up at four administrative levels nationwide, the lowest level being the cell ("cellule" in French), followed by the sector, district and province. At least one "Gacaca Jurisdiction" (comprising General Assembly, Seat of 19 judges and Coordinating Committee) will normally be set up inside each administrative district at each level. These courts will have the power to judge suspects charged with all but the highest category of genocide crimes.
Since 1996, Rwandan law has divided suspects of genocide and crimes against humanity into four categories. Category One (who will still be answerable to the existing national courts) consists of "planners, organizers, instigators, supervisors and leaders of the crime of genocide or of crimes against humanity", perpetrators of sexual torture or violence, and notorious murderers whose criminal acts were marked by "zeal or excessive malice". Category Two consists of "persons whose criminal acts or whose acts of criminal participation place them among the perpetrators, conspirators or accomplices of intentional homicide or of serious attacks" which caused death or were intended to cause death. Category Three is of those who allegedly committed or were accomplice to serious attacks, without the intention of causing death to victims, while Category Four is of people suspected of "having committed offences against assets".
Cell level gacaca courts will have jurisdiction over Category Four suspects, while Category Three suspects will be referred to the sector, and Category Two to the district level. Appeals will mostly be referred to the next level up. Thus gacaca courts at the level of the province will deal with appeals from the districts.
Before gacaca trials begin, "Gacaca Jurisdictions" at cell level will draw up lists of persons killed in their area during the genocide and the suspected killers of these people. They will also draw up an inventory of property looted or destroyed. Their coordinating committees will then proceed to categorize the suspects. The suspects' case files will be distributed to courts with jurisdiction over the suspects.
The public prosecutors of the ordinary courts will hand over existing files of all genocide related crimes to the gacaca courts for re-categorization. Suspects deemed to be of Category One level will have their files sent back to the public prosecutor for trial in the ordinary courts. Suspects already on the Category One list could be shifted to lower categories by gacaca courts, if those courts so decide.
Confession and reduced sentences
"Our plan is not simply to punish, we also aim at rebuilding the Rwandan society," says Justice Minister Mucyo. "Let's say a person who has confessed to having killed could be sentenced to seven years in prison, half of which could be spent outside prison doing community work. Imagine such a penalty for a killer. A situation where such a killer is imprisoned for only three and a half years, there's an aspect of reconciliation in this. Victims will also be compensated."
The gacaca law provides for the possibility of reduced sentences, especially for convicts who confess their crimes. Category One suspects who plead not-guilty incur "a death penalty or life imprisonment", it says, whereas previous legislation provides for the death penalty only. If they plead guilty and confess, the law specifies a sentence ranging from 25 years to life imprisonment.
For Category Two suspects, those who plead not-guilty incur a prison sentence ranging from 25 years to life imprisonment. If they plead guilty, they incur a reduced prison sentence ranging from 12 to 15 years, but half of the pronounced sentence is commuted into community services. This is further reduced to a sentence of 7 to 12 years (half to be similarly commuted) if a person presents their confession of guilt before the Gacaca Jurisdiction draws up its list of suspects.
For Category Three, half of all sentences are commuted into community work. The law lays down sentences of 5 to 7 years for those who plead not-guilty, 3 to 5 years for those who plead guilty, and a maximum 3 years for those who present their confession of guilt before the Gacaca Jurisdiction draws up its list of suspects.
The law states that "defendants coming within the fourth category are sentenced to only the civil reparation of damages caused to other people's property". The Gacaca judges have responsibility for deciding how this will be done. "This provision does not apply," the law continues, "where an amicable settlement is reached either between the perpetrator and the victim or before a public authority or in arbitration".
Damages to victims are to be handled by the national Compensation Fund for Victims of the Genocide and Crimes against humanity. Gacaca courts are to forward to the Fund copies of their judgements and rulings, indicating the identity of people who have suffered physical and/or material damages. The law says that the Fund then "fixes the modalities for granting compensation", based on the damages fixed by jurisdictions.
The government already contributes five percent of the national budget to helping genocide victims. It is currently preparing a bill to regulate the Compensation Fund, which may also receive contributions from third parties.
GG/JC/FH (RW_0402ecorr)
MARCH 21st, 2001
RWANDA /JUSTICE
NEW PROVISIONAL CALANDAR FOR LAUNCH OF GACACA COURTS
Kigali, March 20th, 2001 (FH) Election of judges for "gacaca" courts in Rwanda should take place at the end of May or beginning of June, if all goes well, the Vice-President of the Supreme Court in charge of Gacaca, Aloysie Cyanzayire, said on Tuesday. She added that this would require all the necessary legal texts being in place.
According to the law, these "participative" courts should help shed light on what happened during the 1994 genocide which left some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. They should also speed up the trials of 120,000 people detained in Rwandan jails for genocide and crimes against humanity. Rwandan authorities say that the gacaca project will contribute to the fight against impunity and the promotion of national reconciliation.
Cyanzayire said that the training of gacaca judges could start in July or August. The law states that these judges are to be chosen by the local population, from among Rwandans of integrity, honesty and good conduct. Cyanzayire said that the gacaca courts, adapted from a system of traditional justice, should be able to start working around the end of September. Their first task will be to compile lists of people suspected of genocide and crimes against humanity and categorize their alleged crimes.
Rwandan law specifies four categories of genocide suspect. Gacaca courts will have jurisdiction to try all suspects except Category One, which is genocide planners. The gacaca courts will then have to gather evidence before proceeding with trials. Cyanzayire did not advance a date for the start of trials. However, Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo recently told Hirondelle in Kigali that the trials would probably start at the end of this year.
With regard to the necessary legislation, the "organic law" on gacaca has now been passed by parliament and was approved by Rwanda's Constitutional Court in January. It has only to be officially proclaimed by the President. However, other legal texts are still needed. These include a law on a compensation fund for civil parties and a presidential decree defining public service work to be performed by certain gacaca convicts.
WK/JC/PHD/FH (RW_0320E)
MARCH 20th, 2001
___________________________________________________________________
RWANDA / JUSTICE
LOCAL POPULATION FREE THIRTEEN HUTU PRISONERS
Kigali/ Arusha, March 20th, 2001 (FH) Local people in the northwest Rwandan town of Gisenyi last Friday freed thirteen prisoners accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, in what has been described as a trial run for the planned introduction of "gacaca" traditional court trials.
The State Prosecutor for the region brought 30 people out of Gisenyi prison, having invited the people of the neighbouring communes (Kanama, Rwerere, Nyamyumba, Mutura and Rubavu, in which Gisenyi is situated) to gather at the Umuganda football stadium. The prisoners, all hailing from Rubavu commune, were then presented to the crowd one by one, to decide whether they should be freed or not. These were prisoners with no files or whose files were unclear.
Seventeen of the 30 were denounced by those present, including one by his own cousin. The other 13 did not meet with any accusers and were immediately released. The Prosecutor said, however, that they could be rearrested if new evidence were to be brought against them.
In mid-December last year, 30 other prisoners were released in the same manner in Kibilira commune, also in Gisenyi prefecture. At that time, 58 prisoners accused of genocide and crimes against humanity were brought from Gisenyi prison and presented to the people of their native communes by the State Prosecutor for Gisenyi-Ruhengeri. According to observers, the population, including genocide survivors, spoke with frankness and sincerity during these meetings.
Gisenyi's prison population is estimated at 3,260 people, well over its normal capacity. The Rwandan government's planned introduction of gacaca is motivated partly by the need to solve the problem of prison overcrowding in the wake of the 1994 genocide, to speed up trials and promote national reconciliation.
The country's parliament and Constitutional Court have now approved the necessary implementing legislation. In a recent interview with Hirondelle in Kigali, Rwandan Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo said that the election and training of gacaca judges should take place soon, and that the gacaca courts would start gathering evidence of crimes committed in their areas in July. Trials, he said, should start at the end of this year.
Hirondelle News Agency will shortly be publishing a series of articles on the planned introduction of gacaca in Rwanda.
WK/JC/FH (RW_0320e)
FEBRUARY 16th 2001
___________________________________________________________________
RWANDA / JUSTICE
LAW ON TRADITIONAL COURTS DECLARED CONSTITUTIONAL
Kigali/ Arusha, February 16th, 2001 (FH) Rwanda’s Constitutional Court has declared the government’s law to create traditional courts (“gacaca”) constitutional. The January 18th decision clears the last hurdle to the implementing legislation for gacaca, which will try genocide suspects.
According to the law, these “participative” courts should help shed light on what happened during the 1994 genocide which left some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. They should also speed up the trials of 120,000 people detained in Rwandan jails for genocide and crimes against humanity. Rwandan authorities say that the gacaca project will contribute to the fight against impunity and the promotion of national reconciliation.
The law states that gacaca judges will be chosen from among Rwandans of integrity, honesty and good conduct. The judges have still to be chosen, however, and to receive training. Rwanda’s Justice Minister has said that gacaca should start in the second half of this year. “if all goes well”.
Rwandan law specifies four categories of genocide suspect. Gacaca courts will have jurisdiction to try all suspects except Category One, which is genocide planners. The gacaca law offers more possibility of clemency even towards Category One suspects than does the 1996 law on which genocide trials have so far been based. The 1996 law provides that the sanction should be the death penalty. However, the gacaca law specifies either the death penalty or life imprisonment for Category One convicts who have not pleaded guilty. If, however, a Category One suspect confesses, the gacaca law says he or she faces between 25 years and life imprisonment. Category One suspects will be tried by the ordinary courts in Rwanda.
The gacaca law outlaws civil suits against the State because “it [the State] accepts its role in the genocide and pays a percentage of its annual budget to a reparations fund”. Since genocide trials started in Rwanda in December 1996, there have been frequent claims for reparations from the State. As pointed out by Belgian NGO Avocats Sans Frontières (lawyers without borders, ASF), "up to now the judges have ruled in favour of civil parties claiming large sums of money in damages. But, realistically speaking, no genocide convict nor even the State can pay out such sums".
The government already contributes five percent of the national budget to helping genocide victims. It is currently preparing a bill to regulate the fund, which may also receive contributions from third parties.
WK/JC/FH (RW_0216e)
NOVEMBER 30th 2000
RWANDA/JUSTICE
GACACA COURTS TO START MID-NEXT YEAR, SAYS MINISTER
Arusha/Kigali, November 30th (FH) – Rwanda should launch traditional courts or gacaca by the middle of next year, according to the country’s Justice Minister. The much-heralded project aims to provide a new form of justice at local level to deal with the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.
Jean de Dieu Mucyo said that the law concerning gacaca has now gone to Rwanda’s Constitutional Court, having been approved by the parliament. The minister said the project should be launched by June or July 2001 “ if all goes well ”. Mucyo was speaking earlier this week at a seminar in Murambi (Gitarama prefecture, central Rwanda) on public education for gacaca.
State-owned Radio Rwanda reported that 150 people would be trained in each of Rwanda’s 12 prefectures to help in the public education campaign.
National coordinator for gacaca Aloysie Cyanzayire said there was much preparatory work to be done on training, logistics and public awareness. Speaking on Radio Rwanda, she stressed that the gacaca judges still have to be selected. These judges are to be chosen by the local population from
among “ Inyangamugayo ” (elders/ people of integrity), and will then receive a basic training in judicial procedures. The authorities say they should be people known for their attachment to the truth and opposition to all forms of discrimination and sectarianism.
Rwanda’s parliament passed a law providing for the creation of gacaca on October 12th this year. The Justice Ministry hopes that gacaca will speed up the trials of some 130,000 people held in Rwandan jails on genocide and crimes against humanity charges. Authorities say gacaca are also in line with their policy to fight impunity and promote national reconciliation.
A survey conducted by the Rwandan human rights organisation LIPRODHOR found that three Rwandans out of four supported the idea of gacaca. The survey was conducted among a sample of 943 people from all social categories.
Gacaca will work alongside Rwanda’s existing judicial structures. They will not deal with so-called Category One genocide suspects (planners), but only with the three other lower categories. The concept of gacaca is based on an adapted form of traditional village justice.
JC/FH (RW%1130e)
OCTOBER 15th 2000
ICTR / RWANDA
RWANDAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES LAW ON TRADITIONAL COURTS
Arusha, October 13th, 2000 (FH) – Rwanda’s parliament on Thursday approved a law authorizing the creation of traditional courts or “gacaca” to judge genocide suspects, Rwandan state radio reported.
According to the law, these “participative” courts should help shed light on what happened during the 1994 genocide which left some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. They should also speed up the trials of 120,000 people
detained in Rwandan jails for genocide and crimes against humanity. Rwandan authorities say that the gacaca project will contribute to the fight against impunity and the promotion of national reconciliation.
The law states that gacaca judges will be chosen from among Rwandans of integrity, honesty and good conduct, people who have worked to promote the truth and oppose ethnic divisions and discrimination. The courts will, among
other things, compile lists of all the people living in the smallest administrative districts (“cells”) before the genocide, and of the victims.
There will be three administrative organs, namely an assembly, a headquarters and a coordinating committee. Gacaca courts will be responsible for examining both the cases of prosecution and defence.
Rwandan Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo announced on Radio Rwanda the creation of gacaca committees to be composed of representatives from government, civil society and the donor community. Mucyo said there would be
a meeting in Kigali on Tuesday about how to raise the consciousness of local people on gacaca.
A survey by the Rwandan human rights organization LIPRODHOR found that three Rwandans out of four back the gacaca project. It said 81% of people questioned believed that there was no other way of dealing with the legal
aftermath of the genocide than through the existing judicial system and the gacaca courts. But 51% said they feared a failure of the gacaca project could lead to ethnic conflict, with inevitable socio-political consequences.
The survey sample was taken from a cross-section of social categories. Of the 943 people questioned, 144 were genocide survivors.
AT/JC/FH (RW%1013E )
JANUARY 20th 2000
RWANDA/ICTR
RWANDA APPEALS FOR HANDOVER OF GENOCIDE LEADERS
Kigali, January 20th, 2000 (FH) - Rwandan Attorney-General Gerald Gahima has presented a new list of more than two thousand top genocide suspects wanted by the Rwandan authorities. He appealed to the international community to help bring them to trial, saying many of them were still at large.
Gahima said some countries had cooperated, but some had shown reluctance to hand suspects over, either because they did not have an extradition agreement with Rwanda, or because Rwanda has the death penalty or for "political reasons". "There are no understandable reasons," he told Hirondelle. "These countries are
ignoring their moral obligations under international law".
In particular, he said there were a relatively large number of suspects still at large in Belgium, many living comfortable lives. "We were told that trials would start this year, but they have not started," he told Hirondelle.
"We are concerned about all the delays."
The new list of "Category One" suspects contains the names of 2,133 people suspected of planning and leading the 1994 genocide. Gahima said 644 names had been removed from the old list, while 830 new ones had been added.
"Names have been added because investigations have been continuing since the first list was published in November 1996," he said. "Some names have been removed because the evidence found during investigations was insufficient."
Gahima appealed for suspects to be handed over either to Rwanda, or to the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania.
Rwanda suspended cooperation with the ICTR last November, after its Appeals Court ordered the release of top genocide suspect Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza on procedural grounds. However, the UN Prosecutor has asked for a review of that decision. The Appeals Court, normally based in The Hague (Netherlands), is due to sit in Arusha on February 15th to hear that request.
Asked about the current state of Rwanda's relations with the ICTR, Gahima told Hirondelle news agency that "cooperation is officially suspended, but unofficially we are cooperating. That is a temporary arrangement, and we expect there will be a final decision after February 15th."
Gahima said the Rwandan government had asked to appear as an "amicuscuriae" (friend of the court) at the February 15th hearing but that it still did not know if it would be heard. The ICTR judicial calendar provides for such an appearance "if feasible".
Cooperation certainly appears to be functioning normally at present: the UN expects to fly witnesses from Rwanda to Arusha for the resumption on Monday of the trial of former mayor Ignace Bagilishema, and a visa ban affecting UN staff has been lifted.
The French defence team for former hate-radio boss and genocide suspect Ferdinand Nahimana is currently in Rwanda, in connection with his case at the ICTR. Asked whether Kigali was helping with the team's security arrangements, Gahima said that "If they have a problem, we are ready to assist them."
JC/FH (RW%0120e)
SEPTEMBER 17th 1999
ICTR/BAGILISHEMA
THIRD DEFENCE TEAM TO VISIT RWANDA
Arusha, September 17th '99 (FH) - The defence team for former Rwandan mayor Ignace Bagilishema will next week visit Rwanda, the independant news agency Hirondelle reported on Friday. It will be the third defence team from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to do so, following visits by two British lawyers.
François Roux, the French lawyer defending Bagilishema, told Hirondelle that the visit would last from Sunday to Friday. He and his Mauritanian co-counsel Maroufa Diabira will travel to Mabanza (Kibuye prefecture, western Rwanda), of which Bagilishema was mayor, and to massacre sites in Kibuye.
Bagilishema is charged with seven counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions. His trial is due to start on October 27th.
Until this year, no defence team from the ICTR had been to Rwanda. British lawyer Steven Kay, defence counsel for former Rwandan tea factory director Alfred Musema, broke new ground when he went there in March this year. Kay said he did not encounter any security problems.
David Hooper, the British defence counsel for former Rwandan Education Minister André Rwamakuba, has just returned from a one-week visit to Rwanda.
Asked why he plans to go, Roux told Hirondelle that "right from the start, it was obvious: if I wanted to defend my client properly, I would have to go to Rwanda." He said that so far "no restrictions" had been imposed concerning his requested itenerary, but that "we will see when we get there".
Roux said one of the reasons why defence teams were now willing to go was that relations between the ICTR and Rwanda had improved. "The fact that Steven Kay's team was able to work without difficulty has also contributed," he said.
In June, the ICTR signed a memorandum of understanding with the Rwandan government. Announcing this, United Nations Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs Hans Correll said the memorandum signalled a positive development in relations with Kigali.
The memorandum of understanding sets out what Correll called a "clear legal basis" for UN activities in the country, such as protection of visiting judges and prosecutors, functional and diplomatic immunity and protection of UN premises.
JC/FH (BS§0917f)
MAY 31st 1999
RWANDA/ JUSTICE
KIGALI HOPES TO SET UP TRADITIONAL COURTS BY YEAR-END
Arusha, May 31st '99 (FH) - The Rwandan government is pushing ahead with plans for traditional courts, or "gacaca", to try genocide suspects, the independant news agency Hirondelle reports on Monday. Speaking in Kigali last week, a senior Justice Ministry official said that the authorities will shortly launch a campaign throughout the country to "consult and sensitize the population" on the introduction of gacaca.
The idea is to allow the Rwandan people to participate directly in local trials of genocide suspects. This has been under discussion for several months, and Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo is keen to promote it as a way to alleviate the country's problems of gross prison overcrowding and slow justice for genocide victims.
There are currently some 135,000 genocide suspects awaiting trial in Rwanda's jails, while existing courts had tried only just over 1,200 people by the end of 1998.
Between 500,000 and 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the Rwandan genocide of April to July 1994.
Albert Basomingera, a leading member of the Justice Ministry's gacaca committee, told Hirondelle that the upcoming public campaign on the new gacaca was expected to last until August or September, and that a bill would then be put to parliament. He said the authorities hoped the new system could be operational by the end of the year "or the beginning of next year at the latest".
However, he stressed that proper consultation would be necessary if the idea of participative justice was to work. "In fact it would be useless to set the system up if the population, whose collaboration we are expecting, has not been sufficiently prepared and has not understood its potential advantages," Basomingera told Hirondelle.
"At the moment genocide victims have no hope of justice in the short term, while some of the suspects in jail may be innocent," Basomingera told Hirondelle. "The gacaca idea is not necessarily the ideal solution, but it could offer a way out of the current situation. The crimes for which people are being prosecuted were mostly committed in broad daylight, in front of everybody. So we said, why not get the population to contribute to the judicial process, especially in providing evidence."
Basomingera said that taking justice to the people could also help contribute to national reconciliation. "It's not just a question of passing judgement, but also finding a system that promotes peaceful coexistence," he said.
Fifteen thousand courts
Gacacas have traditionally served to try relatively minor crimes, such as theft, and family disputes at grassroots level. Kigali now plans to adapt the system to allow trials of genocide suspects.
Some 15,000 gacacas would be set up throughout Rwanda. Each one would be composed of 20 members, with judges elected by the local population.. These "people's judges" would receive some basic training and would be assisted by technical advisors with knowledge of the law.
Rwandan law divides genocide suspects into four categories. The first category includes mainly planners and organizers, who face the death penalty if found guilty. They would be excluded from the jurisdiction of the gacacas.
However, the gacacas would be able to try the three lower categories of genocide suspect. These categories include people who acted on orders, who killed because they were told to, and people suspected of looting and stealing the property of genocide victims.
Basomingera told Hirondelle that, under current plans, Category Four suspects would be tried at the lowest administrative level, the "cellule". Category Threes would be tried at sector level, and Category Two at the level of the commune. Appeals would only be possible for Category Two and Three, which would be handled at the level of the commune and the prefecture respectively.
The gacacas would hand down sentences according to individual cases, within the framework of a new law. They would not be able to pass death sentences. The gacacas would also be able to commute part of prison sentences into community service work, a possibility that does not exist under current legislation.
Donor help needed
Basomingera admitted that the project "will need considerable funds", and said the Justice Ministry was currently finalizing a budget for the operation of the courts. Earlier reports put the estimated operating cost at some 20 million dollars.
However, Basomingera stressed that the system would also have to fit with Rwanda's limited means. "I insist that we are not setting up a new civil service... no, no, no," he said. "The system will be simple and simplified, so as to match our financial capacities."
Basomingera said that in the course of unofficial discussions with foreign partners and NGOs, donors had already shown an interest in helping. He said they seemed particularly keen to support the public awareness campaign and training of "people's judges".
Divided opinion
However, some individuals and organizations have already expressed doubts about the new gacacas. During a debate on Radio Rwanda in March, some participants expressed the view that to try suspects under such a system would be to trivialize the crime of genocide, which should be punished in an exemplary way. There are also fears that the courts could be used to settle personal scores or to amnesty perpetrators of genocide.
Members of Avocats Sans Frontières (Lawyers without Borders), a Belgian-based NGO which has been working in Rwanda for more than two years, say safeguards will be needed.
"We are lawyers, and as such we believe strongly in the rights of the defence," Martine Schotsmans of ASF told Hirondelle in Kigali. "The gacaca plan does not provide for suspects to be assisted by a lawyer or any other person. So we had grave doubts at first. But another solution must be found, and this could work if the population are involved and if there are sufficient safeguards. I think that human rights organizations have a big role to play in that respect."
François Régis Rukundakuvuga, executive secretary of genocide survivors' group IBUKA, said the new gacacas "could help us to gather lots of information about the genocide" which could then be passed on to the regular courts. "If that is how it works, it would be a good thing," he told Hirondelle.
"This idea is welcome, given the huge judicial problems we have at the moment," said Anastase Nabahire, head of IBUKA's legal section. "But personally I have some doubts about it in its present form. The draft bill says justice will be entrusted to people who have no knowledge of the law. "
The government stresses that its current draft may be amended, following discussions and public debate. Basomingera of the Justice Ministry told Hirondelle he was aware of the project's risks but did not believe they were any greater than under the existing judicial system.
"Everyone welcomes the basic idea," says IBUKA's François Rukundakuvuga. "But we will monitor the development of the project, to make sure our voice is heard and to help find the appropriate path."
JC/FH (RW§0531e)
MAY 31st 1999
RWANDA JUSTICE/ICTR
GENOCIDE SURVIVORS' GROUP URGES MORE ACTION ON RAPE
Arusha, May 31st '99 (FH) - Genocide survivors' group IBUKA says the Rwandan authorities should do more to help prosecute crimes of sexual violence perpetrated during the 1994 genocide, the independant news agency Hirondelle reports on Monday.
Anastase Nabahire, head of IBUKA's legal section, told Hirondelle in Kigali that he welcomed moves by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to set up a special sexual violence team. "This effort by the ICTR deserves praise," he said, "and we think that judicial authorities in Rwanda should do the same."
The ICTR 's sexual violence team at the prosecutor's office in Kigali has expanded from two to six people since it was set up in March 1997. Its work helped get former mayor of Taba Jean-Paul Akayesu convicted of rape as well as genocide in October last year. More recently, the Arusha-based ICTR approved a prosecution request to amend the indictment against genocide suspect Alfred Musema to include rape charges.
IBUKA's executive secretary François Régis Rukundakuvuga told Hirondelle that victims were still waiting for Rwandan courts to include rape in their sentences. "But," he said,"there are lots of genocide trials where sexual violence comes up. In fact, it is the majority of cases, because rape was one of the weapons used for genocide."
Between 500,000 and 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the Rwandan genocide of April to July 1994. Many Tutsi women were raped before being killed, and many suffered mutilation.
Martine Schotsmans of Belgian NGO Avocats Sans Frontières (Lawyers without Borders) says that rape victims of the genocide are often neglected. "Everyone knows that rape was an integral part of the genocide," she told Hirondelle,"but you don't find much trace of it in the legal files. We don't really know why. Of course there is the cultural taboo surrounding the subject, but also a lack of sensitivity and awareness by court magistrates and perhaps even by lawyers. So there is still a great deal of work to be done."
Avocats Sans Frontières has been working in Rwanda for more than two years, supporting the reconstruction of the country's judicial system by providing defence counsels for genocide suspects. Most of these are foreigners, but ASF works increasingly with Rwandan lawyers.
Attitudes to sexual violence changing?
One of the problems has been getting rape victims to talk, but survivors' groups have been trying to overcome this problem. IBUKA's Anastase Nabahire said things were gradually changing. "Secrecy surrounding this subject was the first problem we faced, but this is being overcome thanks to the systematic approach we have put in place."
Rape victims may ask for their identity to be protected during court hearings, meaning that ordinary members of the public cannot attend. Such requests are usually granted. But IBUKA's Rukundakuvuga says investigators also have to be credible in the eyes of the victims.
" IBUKA has what we call para-lawyers working in this field. We try to assign two -- generally one man and one woman -- to each court to follow cases of sexual violence. Usually the woman's job is to encourage rape victims to tell the court what happened to them. And now they generally do."
Nabahire says that now "most of them work with our lawyers, and even come to our offices to confide in us. There are more and more cases coming forward compared with the past."
He says the majority of victims who come to IBUKA need medical treatment, because some suffered injuries that have not been treated for a long time. Others are suffering from sexually transmitted diseases.
"They need medical care, they need to be encouraged to talk, and they need to testify to the courts," he told Hirondelle.
JC/FH (RW§0531f)
APRIL 21st 1999
RWANDA/JUSTICE
NEARLY TWO THOUSAND GENOCIDE SUSPECTS RELEASED SINCE OCTOBER 1998
Kigali, April 21st '99 (FH) - Nearly two thousand people arrested for genocide and crimes against humanity have been released since October 1998, according to the Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (Ligue Rwandaise pour la Promotion et la Défense des Droits de l'Homme - LIPRODHOR).
Follwing the Rwandan government's October 1998 decision to release ten thousand prisoners without files, LIPRODHOR set up a project (Programme de Suivi des Accusés de Génocide mis en liberté - PSAG) to monitor the situation of freed genocide suspects. Its stated aim is to " contribute to the protection and social reintegration of people who have been the object of judicial pursuit for genocide and who are innocent or presumed innocent".
The PSAG has just published its first report, based on investigations between December 1998 and March 1999.
Overall assessment of releases
The PSAG divides those freed into four categories: people released for lack of concrete evidence against them, the ten thousand prisoners without files that the government decided to release, people who have been acquitted, and detainees who have served their prison term.
According to PSAG findings, 1,988 people had been released by March 15th, 1999. Of these,1,107 (56.6%) were released for lack of evidence, 753 (37.8%) because they did not have files, 55 (2.7%) because they had been acquitted, 4 (0.2%) because they had served their sentence, 19 (0.9%) because they were minors and 50 (2.5%) because they were elderly. These statistics were gathered from court prosecutors, presidents of tribunals and prison directors.
However, LIPRODHOR says that "state prosecutors in the southern town of Butare and the central town of Gitarama refused to supply the PSAG investigators with figures regarding releases of genocide suspects. In Gitarama, the court gave figures only for people who had been acquitted. The Butare prosecutor gave only the number of people freed. The PSAG team was not able to obtain the names of people who had been released in these two prefectures."
LIPRODHOR says that in these two prefectures, "people released from jail are frequently subject to hostile reactions, sometimes even leading to death". It cites the example of 24 freed prisoners who were killed in Butare prefecture (revealed by the regional security council at the end of 1997), and 14 people belonging to the family of a freed pastor who were massacred in Ruhango (Gitarama prefecture) last year.
According to LIPRODHOR, the percentage of genocide suspects released is very low because of "lengthy trials and insufficient judicial staff in relation to the prison population". It says that "according to figures from the Rwandan Justice Ministry, the prison population numbered 150,440 people last December, of whom at least 135,000 were accused of genocide.
Monitoring of freed detainees
Between December 15th, 1998 and March 15th, 1999, members of the PSAG team visited 75 freed detainees in fifteen communes. These communes were situated in seven out Rwanda's twelve prefectures. The report says that this number (4.02%) "appears insignificant compared with the total number of people freed", and gives four explanations:
According to the report, it is difficult in towns to locate the homes of the people concerned. In most cases, town dwellers do not know each other, even if they are neighbours. In addition, the addresses change frequently because of the high cost of accommodation. While the financial situation of most Rwandan citizens is precarious, this is even more the case for freed prisoners.
The neighbours of these people are reluctant to reveal their adresses, for fear of exposing them to re-arrest, according to the same report. Some freed detainees have been re-arrested and could not be found when investigators went to visit. In other cases, the report says, geographical access is impossible.
Breakdown by age and profession
Out of 75 people that the PSAG visited, 47 (62.6%) had been farmers before being sent to prison, that is, people without any professional training. Teachers represented 6.6% and public service workers or NGO employees 8.8%. The report says that these figures "lead one to conclude that the majority of people released are farmers and that farmers make up the bulk of the Rwandan prison population".
Thirty-nine of the freed persons visited (52%) are between 20 and 40 years old. LIPRODHOR says "this can be explained by the fact that people of this age are fit and strong enough to commit bloody crimes". Only 20 people (26.6%) are aged between 40 and 60, which the report says is "probably due to the fact that government measures to free the old and the chronically sick have not been widely implemented".
Allegations of torture
LIPRODHOR says that out of the 75 people visited, 16 (21.3%) said their prison conditions had been "relatively good". On the other hand, 52 (69.3%) told PSAG investigators that they had been "subject to beatings, physical torture and abuse. Nine of them are still physically handicapped or have chronic health problems as a result."
According to the report, people who were accused of genocide and then freed are faced with "a pitiful life, devoid of basic necessities. Most of their homes were looted and ransacked when they were arrested. Their families have usually been unable to work in normal conditions, because most of their time and resources were devoted to supporting their imprisoned relatives".
Children of prisoners have usually left school for lack of fees, LIIPRODHOR says. The organization says that most people who were employed before being arrested encounter problems trying to get their job back.
There are nevertheless some people who are able to exercise their right to be re-hired. The report says these are "mostly people who have been acquitted by the tribunals".
LIPRODHOR says that some people granted a provisional release are subject to threats by their denouncers, who are "apparently well organized, as they are linked to certain organizations which have not yet understood that these releases are well founded". However, the report says that people acquitted by the relevant judicial authorities rarely suffer such threats.
Differing opinions
The PSAG reports that of the freed people it spoke to, almost all said their arrest was linked to their property or their job. They all told PSAG investigators that "they did not have any desire for revenge against the people they thought had denounced them. They say they do not plan to start judicial proceedings against such people, as is their legal right, because they say they want only their freedom. They seem to aspire to peaceful cohabitation with everyone, including those who got them arrested".
The report also enumerates the demands of freed genocide suspects. These include receiving compensation as provided in law, social reintegration, state aid for children who have been forced to leave school and state subsidies for people living in dire poverty. Those who had jobs want them back, while torture victims want financial help to cover their medical costs.
LIPRODHOR also contacted genocide survivors. According to its report, the majority of survivors said they thought judicial decisions were tainted with corruption, both with regard to genocide trials and the provisional release of genocide suspects. They say they do not have confidence in the verdicts handed down. Some survivors oppose the release of minors, the elderly and chronically sick, on the grounds that everyone who particpated in the genocide should be punished. Most survivors want to receive the damages and interest awarded by court judgements.
The report also gives the opinion of local authorities on freed genocide suspects. Mayors and local officials contacted by the PSAG said that "in general the freed detainees are well accepted by the population, that they live peacefully together and that they find their property and goods again". Nevertheless, these local authorities say that "occasionally a freed person may have played a prominent role in massacres. In such cases the population make this known and the person may be re-arrested". Finally, they say that successful reintegration of freed suspects is thanks to increased public campaigns to promote national reconciliation.
WK/PHD/JC/FH (RW§0421e)
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