Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
13 July 2007
Kigali — Members of the Rwandan opposition Banyarwanda Political Party have asked the British Queen Elizabeth II to intervene and "help put in place an impartial justice in Rwanda" by stopping the Gacaca community tribunals, RNA has established.
"We request the immediate stop of the semi-traditional courts Gacaca which the tyranny government uses as a tool to exterminate one part of Rwandese population", reads a petition dated July 12.
The communication adds; "We request fair justice that can punish all Hutu and Tutsi who committed genocide crimes before 1994, in 1994 and after 1994".
In an attempt to quicken the trial process and dispense justice to a country that badly needed it, Rwanda resurrected its age - old community based approach in resolving disputes and allowing reconciliatory justice locally known as Gacaca.
The group, claiming to be speaking on behalf of "innocent millions" of Rwandans, also wants the Queen to intervene and do what is "possible to guarantee the freedom of opinion in Rwanda". It is also demanding the "liberation of political prisoners that have been "starving" in Rwandan jails "without charges".
"Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we as the new generation of goodwill that is committed to bringing Peace, Democracy, Justice and good relationship among Rwandese citizens and Rwandese friends, have hope in you and your government, and we hope you will consider our plight", the group writes.
The party, based in Brussels, also expresses its discontent with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) whose mandate they want extended. Last year, the UN Security Council ordered the tribunal to end all its activities by 2010 but critics have been up in arms claiming the court needs to be given more time to prosecute "all sides" from the conflict that ravaged Rwanda.
Originally, Gacaca derived its name from a type of short and clean grass known in Kinyarwanda, as Umucaca. In 1996, the Rwanda parliament enacted and voted a Genocide law dividing genocide suspects into 4 categories.
Gacaca courts have got only jurisdiction over genocide suspects that fall in category 2 comprising comprises of suspects who participated in physical attacks that resulted into the death of the victim. It also covers category 4 genocide suspects accused of looting, theft or other crimes related to property, as well category 3 suspects.
So far, the courts have managed to convict about 1.5 million individuals in connection with the Genocide and it is planned they end activities by year-end. Kigali and the Southern province have the highest number of people convicted.
Meanwhile, a report by the Gacaca secretariat shows that up to 49,000 Genocide suspects are moving free in exile. It also estimated that around 94,000 suspects have passed away. Government in April last year issued an international 'Red Notice' for 92 individuals believed to have been the planners of the Genocide.
The umbrella grouping of Genocide survivors IBUKA says that "over 1.074.000 million Tutsis" were butchered during the 1994 Genocide by thousands of rampaging militias and former government soldiers.
According to findings released by ICTR in its June newsletter, some 250 000 Rwandan women, primarily Tutsis, were raped during the Genocide from April to July 1994 - the 100-day period of the carnage.
The tribunal says the number includes Tutsi or moderate Hutu women that were systematically raped and suffered sexual aggressions within the framework of the conspiracy of the Genocide.
The Rwandan Association of Widows of the Genocide (AVEGA) also estimates that a third of these raped women during the Genocide acquired the AIDS virus as a result of their aggressions.
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