One week after the opening of the semi-traditional Gacaca courts across the whole of Rwanda, the Rwandan authorities said on Wednesday that there had been a generally high turn out for the hearings.

"The turn out was very good. We are impressed", Charles Kayitana, the director of communication in the Gacaca department of the Rwanda Supreme Court, which supervises the Gacaca courts, told Hirondelle.

Gacaca courts started operating in June 2002, with 80 pilot Gacaca courts. An evaluation by the Gacaca department four months later concluded that the pilot Gacacas had been a success. Some 600 courts opened last week in what has been described as the "wholesale opening" of the courts. The special courts were created to speed up the trials of over 100,000 genocide suspects languishing in Rwandan prisons. Some of them have been in detention without trial for over seven years.

"The only limitation now is the logistics. We would otherwise have opened all the courts", Kayitana added. An estimated 10,000 courts are expected to be set up.

"It's now up to us", Methode Hatangimana, a resident of Gisozi sector on the outskirts of Kigali city told Hirondelle shortly after the start of Gacaca hearings in his cellule (a Rwandan administrative area). "We have no other chance to prove to the world that Rwandans can live together in harmony again", he said. Gisozi witnessed some of the worst massacres of the 1994 genocide.

Asked whether he believed that his neighbours were going to tell the truth in the hearings, Hatangimana said: "Maybe. Maybe not. But there will always be someone else that saw the events. Everything here took place in broad daylight. They were proud of killing".

Each Gacaca court will proceed at its own pace. Courts that opened in June are now at phase six of the hearings. This phase, during which lists of suspects are drawn up in open public sessions, is the penultimate before the trials begin. The last phase, which is closed to the public, will categorise the suspects into the four categories provided for in Rwandan law. Trials in the courts that opened in June are set to begin early next year. Gacaca courts have jurisdiction over all but the first category of genocide suspects - alleged planners rapists and distinguished killers.

Boycotts in the north Contrary to the general trend elsewhere in the country, some parts of the Rwanda have opposed Gacaca. The provinces of Byumba, Gisenyi and Ruhengeri, close to the northern Rwanda border with Uganda have been seen as resistant to the Gacaca process. The area was the base of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebellion that ousted the Sindikubwabo government. Residents here have requested for an amendment to the law establishing the courts to include war crimes committed by members of the current Rwandan army in its war to end the 1994 genocide.

A source in the Gacaca department that preferred anonymity confirmed that there was a low turn out at Gacacas in these areas. Gacaca courts have no jurisdiction over war crimes. The RPF-led coalition government in Kigali acknowledges that some members of its army committed war crimes but says they have been tried and will continue to be tried by military tribunals.

"There is a clear distinction between isolated incidences of vengeance and an organised genocide", Rwandan minister of Justice, Jean de Dieu Mucyo told Hirondelle. "We have made it clear to people with complaints against the army that they have a forum to address those issues", he added.

Mucyo poured scorn on the predictions of some analysts that the opposition in the north was likely to have a substantial effect on the success of Gacaca.

Witness protection Reports of intimidation and killing of potential witnesses is another problem that has shown up since the start of Gacaca courts. Hirondelle has learnt of four unconfirmed murders in Kigali allegedly committed to prevent the victims from testifying.

"We have not heard of any particular case of murder", Kayitana said. "We have only heard and dealt accordingly with reports of intimidation in some parts of the country", he said, adding that "such things are bound to happen when you open up trials on such a wide scale against a backdrop of massive participation in the genocide".

High confession rates On the other hand, Gacaca may benefit from the high numbers of confessions being reported among prisoners. Confession hearings have been taking place in prisons around the country since 1999. Some of these hearings are open to the public.

A report released last week by the Ministry of Justice indicates that 30% of all genocide suspects in detention have pleaded guilty. In the Nyamata region (South Rwanda), as many as 56% of the suspects in detention have pleaded guilty.

Gacaca law provides for halving of sentences for suspects that plead guilty and confess. Prosecutors have been encouraging suspects to plead guilty to avoid long sentences and to foster reconciliation. "This is going to speed up the process of Gacaca and quicken genuine forgiveness", Kayitana said.