KIGALI - The Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, yesterday received in his office 18 students from Arcadia University in Pennsylvania.

The US-based students are in Rwanda on a week-long study tour on conflict resolution and to learn from the judicial system and reconciliation process.

The minister enlightened the scholars about the pre-genocidal regimes that were characterised by unqualified judges unlike today’s regime that has a professionalised judicial system.

"Before the Genocide, high school drop outs became judges with barely any skills,” he said. "The present government has trained ten times the number of judges that existed then.”

The minister attributed notable peace in the country to the unprecedented success of the Gacaca semi-traditional courts, where up to 1.5 million Genocide-related cases were resolved.

He petitioned the students to act as Rwanda’s ambassadors on the socioeconomic transformation the country has undergone.

The coordinator of the students, Sandy Jones, said that they expect to learn a lot from the Rwandan reconciliation process.

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