The National Service of Gacaca Jurisdictions has announced that the traditional courts only have 97 pending cases.

Gacaca courts are semi traditional courts introduced to deal with the over a million backlog of cases of persons suspected of committing the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Addressing reporters, yesterday, Domitille Mukantaganzwa, the Executive Secretary of the service, said that the cases would be completed by July this year.

"Some of the cases involve convicts who appealed, others are ones that were not concluded properly and this became necessary for them to be tried,” she added.

Mukantaganzwa stressed that the cases would be handled from next week.

"When we finalise these cases, there will be no more Gacaca courts,. Cases of persons suspected of committing the 1994 Genocide will be handled by the conventional courts,” she added.

She explained that most of the pending cases involved those convicted in absentia after they fled the country fearing Gacaca courts. So when they voluntarily returned back home, they had the right to appeal for their cases to be heard in their presence.

The Gacaca boss stated that the courts have so far tried 1.5 million cases adding that the institution is compiling data to highlight the system's achievements and draft a final report in July this year.

Gacaca tried all but cases involving key masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The masterminds were mainly political and major opinion leaders who were tried by conventional courts. 

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