March 10
RWANDA:
Rwanda launches new phase of genocide trials at traditional courts
Neighbours convicted a man of killings at a roadblock and in a Roman
Catholic church Thursday in the first judgment handed down by community
courts formed to speed up the prosecution of tens of thousands of people
accused of taking part in Rwanda's government-orchestrated slaughter in
1994.
Thousands of the community courts, called gacaca, have been investigating
cases over the last 3 years, and Thursday marked the start of trials in
118 of the courts, said Johnston Busingye, secretary general in the
justice ministry.
"Gacaca is a massive enterprise," he said. "We needed to do a lot of
footwork to get ourselves ready."
The courts allow survivors to try alleged perpetrators of the 1994
genocide in which a government of extremists from the Hutu majority
orchestrated the slaughter of more than 500,000 people, most of them
minority Tutsis.
But some survivors are concerned about the slow pace of gacaca trials and
what they say are lenient sentences for those who confess. Human-rights
groups have said the proceedings do not meet international standards for
criminal courts.
Rwandan officials, however, say they turned to the community courts to
speed up a massive undertaking - trials for the 63,000 people accused of
taking part in the genocide. It could be decades before their cases are
heard in conventional courts, which are trying only the leaders of the
100-day slaughter, the officials say. A UN tribunal in neighbouring
Tanzania is trying top genocide suspects.
Rwandan officials also say the community courts, by bringing together
survivors and perpetrators, will promote reconciliation.
The latest phase of gacaca proceedings "has been expected by the whole
country, by the victims of the genocide and actually by the perpetrators
as well because gacaca is . . . supposed to bring healing, it is supposed
to bring closure and it is supposed to promote unity and reconciliation,"
Busingye said.
The first conviction came later Thursday when a panel of nine judges -
dressed in sashes bearing national colours of yellow, blue and green -
convicted a man for killing people stopped at a roadblock during the
genocide and others who sought refuge from the slaughter in a Roman
Catholic church in central Kigali.
The court, gathered outside a local government office in Kigali, sentenced
Saddam Nshimiyimana to 30 years in jail. The 37-year-old man had denied
taking part in any killings, but confessed to robbing and destroying Tutsi
homes.
"It is very good now that we can see justice taking root, but up to now we
still have people who don't want to reveal the truth on what happened
during the genocide," said Augustin Ngendahayo, who lost dozens of
relatives in the genocide, including some killed by Nshimiyimana.
Suspects are encouraged to confess and seek forgiveness from surviving
victims in exchange for lighter sentences, and so far some 80 per cent of
those facing gacaca trials have admitted to their role in the slaughter,
Busingye said.
For each gacaca, local people were elected and trained to serve on 9-judge
panels.
Communities held public meetings to detail what happened in the
neighbourhood during the slaughter and to identify victims and culprits.
Residents then determined the seriousness of the crimes and charged
suspects.
The maximum gacaca sentence is life in prison. Conventional courts can
impose the death penalty.
When the gacaca system is up and running, there will be 12,000 of the
courts, Busingye said, although he could not say when all the courts would
be up and running.
(source: Associated Press)
