EaSTERN PROVINCE

A Gacaca president and a cell official in Ndatemwa cell were recently arrested by police after allegedly receiving Frw350,000 of 700,000 bribe.

This is the latest such case in a series of many others which have previously come to the limelight, coming at a time when the traditional courts are winding up business, indeed others have already wound up.

These officials, although court is yet to do its work, have tainted the image of the traditional courts.

By accepting corruption, they have betrayed the trust put in them to deliver justice. To the MP, who tipped police to apprehend the duo, we appreciate his role, but we also take it with caution.

Caution is needed because sources allege that he had at first bought his way through. So if true, and he later turns around to report the same people, what could be the trick behind?

The action of the Gacaca official brings a lot to mind; people begin to wonder whether the many cases that they previously handled, were based on impartiality.

Gacaca courts were trusted not only as traditional ways of reducing the backlog of cases, but also reconciling Genocide survivors and perpetrators.

The courts have tremendously handled cases that would take years and has fostered some form of peace and reconciliation, thus achieving a major goal of probably any judicial or penal system.

With 120,000 genocide suspects in prison, experts calculated that it would take 350 years to try all defendants under the normal judicial system.

The Government of Rwanda chose this judicial system because of its characteristics that were needed to rehabilitate the Rwandan society.

In 2003, the government issued a statement showing its decision to establish the traditional-based court system.

The statement indicated that Gacaca refers to a traditional Rwandan method of conflict resolution at the village level.

In case of conflicts in a community, such as land wrangles, property damage, marital issues, or inheritance rights, meetings were convened between the aggrieved parties, and presided over by community leaders.

The meetings were not only meant to address issues of injustice, but also to ensure that those accused, and found guilty, were again fully accepted as members of the community.

Reconciliation between violators and their communities was at the core of the traditional Gacaca custom.

This system has worked properly in many parts of the country, where many survivors and the perpetrators have realised that in many ways, both have been victims and that there is need for reconciliation.

However, Gacaca does not replace, but is additional to, two other judicial mechanisms that are in the process of trying the tens of thousands of prisoners who stand accused of committing genocide crimes.

Ends