Robert Mukombozi
24 February 2008
Kigali — THE Rwandan government has adopted a new Bill on genocide aiming to pave way for the quick trial of a bulk of genocide related cases throughout the country.
The Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) on Thursday unanimously voted for the Bill arguing it would enable the country deal with the more pressing issue of providing justice to genocide victims, while bringing the culprits to book in normal judicial systems.
"The primary motive of bringing this Bill forward is to ensure that the mandate as well as jurisdiction of traditional Gacaca courts is extended to enable us deal with the bulk of genocide cases that still remain unresolved until now," Rwanda's Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama told legislators while presenting the Bill.
Mr Karugarama says while Gacaca courts have managed to handle about a million cases since their establishment more than 7,000 genocide related cases in category one remain have not been heard.
Such delays, he said are a challenge in a country like Rwanda that is still building her judiciary that was ravaged by the 1994 genocide that claimed close to a million people.
"If this bill gets your consent we shall then be able to ensure that all genocide victims receive justice, while those who committed the atrocities are brought to book as prompt as possible," Mr Karugarama said.
Among the primary proposals highlighted in the Bill include the division of mandate as well as empowerment of the Gacaca courts.
Path to justice
Ordinary courts must deal with cases involving planners of the genocide at both national and provincial levels, while Gacaca handles executors, says Mr Karugarama.
In this regard, the Justice Minister said it will, in the process, be easier for the two courts to handle the remaining bulk of genocide related cases, which if only handled by ordinary courts would take over four years.
And where ordinary people can't get evidence to pin planners of the genocide, government will be having the capacity under classical courts to institute investigations and source evidence against the culprits.
He explained that the same Bill if enacted would facilitate easy handling of genocide cases that will be emerging from across the globe after the closure of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and Gacaca courts.
At the same time rape victims among other cases of sexual violence will be heard in camera.
However, legislators expressed concern over the increasing insecurity of genocide survivors, and also asked the justice ministry to consider educating Gacaca court leaders in a bid to empower them with capacity to handle category one genocide cases.
The ICTR is the most prominent aspect of transitional justice in Rwanda, but Rwanda wants to use her institutions to address the consequences and legacy of the genocide.
The Rwandan government originally took a purely retributive attitude toward transitional justice, focusing entirely on criminal prosecutions of alleged participants in the genocide.
But the country's criminal justice system was so badly damaged by the genocide, and the number of accused participants so great, that criminal trials of the more than 130,000 persons imprisoned would have taken roughly 113 years by one estimate.
Meanwhile Bill has been forwarded to the parliamentary commission charged with genocide ideology for scrutiny.
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