Traditional justice used to heal genocide's wounds

KIGALI, Rwanda -- Residents of Nyarugunga, a poor, dusty neighborhood in Rwanda's capital, were the first to witness the unfolding of the 1994 genocide. On Wednesday, they will witness the beginning of the most ambitious effort yet to find justice and reconciliation.

Rwanda's first "gacacas" -- traditional courts to try those suspected of taking part in the genocide that left more than 500,000 dead -- will be inaugurated in Nyarugunga. In the same neighborhood, residents saw their president's plane crash in flames and watched hours later as Hutu militiamen set up roadblocks to start rounding up Tutsis for slaughter.

The government hopes that gacacas (rhymes with cha-chas) will create a forum where rumors about what happened and who was responsible will be aired, thereby helping to heal sharp divisions between Hutus and Tutsis ahead of next year's national elections, the first since the genocide.

Rwandans hope the guilty will be punished, the innocent cleared and the country freed of accusations and counteraccusations -- charges often laid only behind closed doors.

"People here are ready for gacaca. It is time that we establish the truth," said Kamashashi Murwanashyaka, a Hutu who is running Nyarugunga's court.

There are practical reasons behind the gacacas. Only 6,000 genocide suspects have been tried. With 115,000 others in jail awaiting trial, it would take Rwandan more than 140 years to try them all at the current pace.

"No legal system ... was ever designed to deal with violence in this scale," said Gerard Gahima, Rwanda's chief prosecutor. "Gacaca will help us realize justice and accountability in an expeditious manner."

During the first stage of the gacaca system, communities will hold public meetings where residents will identify victims and name the culprits. Then residents will determine the seriousness of the crime and charge each suspect. Finally, suspects appear before a 19-judge court.

The 70,000 suspects who have admitted guilt will be tried first. They face sentences ranging from community service to 25 years in jail. Suspects who maintain their innocence but are convicted face a maximum sentence of life in jail.

Gacacas were last used in 1936, when Rwanda was ruled by Belgium.

"It is the first opportunity for Hutus and Tutsis to talk in detail and in public about what happened," said Jean Jacques Badibanga of Avocat Sans Frontieres, or Lawyers Without Borders. "Maybe they can find the social truth ... it may not be the real truth, but an acceptable one."

The government plans to eventually set up gacacas in 11,000 communities. Only 12 will be established now.

Authorities consider the first gacacas "an opportunity to test the system," said Aloyizia Cyanzayire, who is in charge of setting up and monitoring the traditional courts.

Forming ethnic lines

Concerns, and hopes, tend to run along ethnic lines.

Some Hutus fear many people who were involved in the violence but never arrested may be jailed or ordered to pay compensation to victims as a result of the gacacas, said Murwanashyaka, the gacaca judge.

"At the same time, other Hutus want gacaca to ... release innocent Hutus sent to jail by Tutsis," he said.

Many Tutsis see the system as a way of letting off the guilty.

"Gacaca will only benefit genocide detainees and other suspects because they are guaranteed sentencing far more lenient than the death penalty," said Janvier Barushimana, a 32-year-old Tutsi.

Other Tutsis worry they may not be safe after identifying neighbors who took part in killing or looting, said Bernadette Uwingabire, a 38-year-old Tutsi whose husband was hacked to death by Hutus.

Some see the gacacas as an empty gesture.

"For me ... reconciliation is over," Uwingabire said.