Poli 360: Strategic StudiesPoli 360: Strategic Studies

Rwandan Rwandan

Gacaca:Gacaca:

Relief Justice?Relief Justice?

Lecture OutlineLecture Outline

Post-Genocide Rwanda Gacaca

The Tradition Organic Law Process and Progress

Gacaca: “Truth, Justice, Reconciliation”? Restorative Justice Legal Process Concerns Politicised Justice

Video: “Gacaca: Living Together Again in Rwanda” Suggested Readings and Websites

The DilemmaThe Dilemma

-“the minority fears democracy. The majority fears justice. The minority fears that democracy is a mask for finishing an unfinished genocide. The majority fears the demand for justice is a minority ploy to usurp power forever”

– Mahmood Mamdani

Post-Genocide Rwanda Demographics

Victims: 937,000 Suspects: 80,000

(present); 500,000 (expected w/ Gacaca)

Widows: 400,000 Orphans: 500,000

Post-Genocide Rwanda: PoliticsPost-Genocide Rwanda: Politics

National Unity and Reconciliation Agenda

Liberalisation and Democratisation

Remember Rwanda 10th Anniversary of the Genocide

Election: Kagame won, a little Election: Kagame won, a little “too well”“too well”

Post-Genocide Rwanda: JusticePost-Genocide Rwanda: Justice

Judicial infrastructure destroyed

130,000 imprisoned 700 received death

sentence, 23 hanged “Justice delayed is justice

denied…. And our legal system is not meeting the challenges of transforming our society”

President Paul Kagame( ’02)

GACACAGACACA

Gacaca means “judgement on the grass”

Precolonial form Purpose:

“ sanctions the violation of rules that are shared by the community, with the sole objective of reconciliation” through restoring harmony and social order and reintegration of the person who was the source of the disorder

ORGANIC LAW: Categorisation of Responsibility ONE: (National Courts)

a) Planners, organisers, instigators, supervisors, and leaders of genocide or a crime against humanity

b) Perpetrators in positions of authority by virtue of their zeal or excessive malice with which they committed atrocities, distinguished themselves in their areas of residence or wherever they passed

d) Perpetrators of sexual torture or violence TWO: (Gacaca) Perpetrators, conspirators or accomplices of homicide or

assault causing death THREE: (Gacaca) Criminal participation or assaults FOUR: (Gacaca) Property violations and theft

Gacaca ProcessGacaca Process

10,000 Gacaca courts 200,000 judges

(‘Inyangamugayo’ = people of integrity)

Courts restarted March 10th, 2005

Gacaca: Restorative Justice NormsGacaca: Restorative Justice Norms

Justice for reconciliation Primacy of truth telling and

healing Guilt by confession or

consensus Punishment by

reintegration or incarceration

Community trial process

Gacaca: Benefits of Gacaca: Benefits of Restorative JusticeRestorative Justice

Community participants Plea bargains/confessions

=truth telling Compensation Reintegration and

Restoration Participation of women as

victims, widows, and community leaders

Dangers of Gacaca: Dangers of Gacaca: Legal ProcessLegal Process

HR and Intl Criminal Law Critique

No psychosocial services for traumatised participants

Confessions process Vengeance Intimidation of witnesses

and judges No formal defense counsel

Dangers of Gacaca:Dangers of Gacaca:The Tutsi EthnocracyThe Tutsi Ethnocracy

Victor’Justice Repression in the name

of “unity” Identity Policy Solidarity Camps No prosecution of RPA

crimes Tutsis are the “victors”

of the genocide

Politics and JusticePolitics and Justice

Victims: dead Tutsis and Hutus

Survivors: all Tutsis Perpetrators: all Hutus Victors: RPF/Tutsis

“the form of justice flows from the form of power. If victor’s justice requires victor’s power, then is not victor’s justice simply revenge masquerading as justice?” (Mamdani)

VIDEOVIDEO

Gacaca: Living Together Again in Rwanda

Directed by Anne Aghion

First Run/ICARUS Films 2002

Suggested Readings and Websites

Gacaca website: www.inkiko-gacaca.gov.rw African Rights. Gacaca: A Shared Responsibility. New York: African

Rights, 2003 Norwegian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. “Prosecuting

Genocide in Rwanda: The Gacaca System and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.” International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights

Rejntjens, Filip. “Rwanda, Ten Years On: From Genocide to Dictatorship.” African Affairs, 103 (2004)

Tiemessen, Alana. “After Arusha: Gacaca Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda” in African Studies Quarterly, Vol 8, No 1, 2004.