Poli 360: Strategic Studies RwandanGacaca: Relief Justice?

Lecture 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 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: Politics  National Unity and Reconciliation Agenda  Liberalisation and Democratisation  Remember Rwanda 10 th Anniversary of the Genocide

Election: Kagame won, a little “too well”

Post-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)

GACACA  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 Process  10,000 Gacaca courts  200,000 judges (‘Inyangamugayo’ = people of integrity)  Courts restarted March 10 th, 2005

Gacaca: 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 Restorative Justice  Community participants  Plea bargains/confessions =truth telling  Compensation  Reintegration and Restoration  Participation of women as victims, widows, and community leaders

Dangers of Gacaca: Legal 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: The 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 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)

VIDEO Gacaca: Living Together Again in Rwanda Directed by Anne Aghion First Run/ICARUS Films 2002

Suggested Readings and Websites  Gacaca website:  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.