March 31, 2006

Rwandan gacaca courts and their context

Posted by Helena Cobban at 16:03 | TrackBack

Phil Clark, a newly minted Ph.D. from Oxford University, recently published a lengthy and extremely informative reflection on the gacaca courts in Rwanda-- whose operation was the topic of his doctoral research.

This article was in the Summer 2005 issue of Dissent magazine. It is well written, and provides good reporting on many steps of the process that leads people to those fateful gatherings "on the law" (= 'gacaca'). His reporting included this:

    On the side of a hill near Nyamata, two weeks after the suspects began returning, I sat in the house of Marie, a thirty-six-year-old Tutsi woman wearing a bright floral shawl around her shoulders. Marie said that during the genocide she hid in bushes for three days as the Interahamwe [genocidal militias] swept through the village; she found refuge in Burundi. When she returned to Nyamata, she found her house burned to the ground. She now lived in a house that, like most of the neighboring homes, the government had built for genocide survivors. Marie’s three children chased each other, laughing, through the four sparse rooms as we spoke. One of her boys, Marie explained, was a Hutu whom she adopted after his parents fled to the DRC near the end of the genocide. “His parents killed some of the children in my household,” she said, staring blankly out of the window. Marie’s parents, her son, three nephews and two nieces were killed during the genocide. She didn’t know who had killed her parents, but she suspected that the parents of her adopted son were responsible for the murder of the six children. I asked why she had adopted the boy. “Before the genocide,” she said, “we all lived together. No one cared if you were Hutu or Tutsi—we were like one family. Their children lived with my children. This one has really always been my son.”
He concluded with this:
    Eleven years after the genocide, Rwanda is at a crossroads. Against immense odds, the government has avoided mass violence, sometimes using heavy-handed tactics. Beneath the peaceful veneer, though, the old antagonisms fester, and the release of detainees has only magnified these tensions. Gacaca represents a risky but necessary circuit-breaker to the fear, distrust, and violence of the past, a rare chance for the population to confront the legacies of the genocide. If gacaca fails, justice and reconciliation in Rwanda will take a severe battering. In many communities, where Hutu and Tutsi are already engaging with one another in new ways, it will probably succeed, and these successes should be celebrated. The celebrations must be muted, however, until communities across the whole country reap the same benefits.

    Upon leaving Rwanda, I reflected on what the detainee Karisa had told me as the bus of released prisoners headed out to the countryside. His expressions of quiet optimism but overriding uncertainty seemed to speak for an entire nation: “We have a new life now. Everything is new. But what will happen to us now? None of us can know.”

Anyway, this piece certainly adds a lot to what we know about gacaca. My thanks to Phil for sending it to TJF.


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BRINGING AFRICAN DICTATORS AND WARLORDS TO JUSTICE

By Ndung’u Wainaina

The arrest of warlord Charles Taylor after his indictment was unsealed in June 2003 by UN –backed Sierra Leone Special Court cast a bright hope to conflict ridden Africa with dictators towering and trampling on rights of innocent citizens. Africa has for long time been dominated by leaders who have constantly and consistently been unleashing in deliberate and indiscriminate manner terror with impunity to civilians. To address this phenomenon, AU council of ministers endorsed a plan of action against impunity in 1996. Subsequently, African leaders made a commitment through a declaration in 2000 to condemn genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the continent and pledged to cooperate with relevant institutions in the continent and outside that are set up to prosecute perpetrators. However, the Charles Taylor case has exposed African leaders as lacking common approach in combating impunity and preserving emerging fragile peace and democracy in the continent.

Charles Taylor trial in the Sierra Leone Special Court constitutes crimes against humanity and war crimes in Sierra Leone and the neighbouring countries including his home country, Liberia. He is accused of masterminding massive killings, amputations, mutilations, sexual offences including sexual slavery and rape, recruitment of child soldiers and adductions. Across in central Africa, former US-backed Chad dictator Hussein Habre is facing trials in Belgium whose anti-atrocity law allow its courts to hear cases from all over the world. Habre extradition to Belgium was a wake up call to dictators in Africa and elsewhere, and warning them that if they commit atrocities they could also be brought to justice one day and not necessary in their respective countries. Habre extradition came shortly after another interesting scenario where the House of Lords in London stripped the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet of his immunity and had him flown back home from exile to face prosecution.

The arrest of Charles Taylor and final prosecution are crucial actions that will contribute significantly to securing peace, justice and accountability in Liberia and its tormented neighbours where Taylor had established and sponsored an army empire of militia to terrorize and overthrow governments in West Africa in return for concessions to exploit diamonds and other natural resources. African leaders, majority of whom have opted to keep quiet over the Taylor issue, need to recognize the essential role that justice play in maintaining peace, political stability and promoting rule of law. Impunity does not serve the interests of African people whose lives have been ruined by either state or non-state actors sponsored armed groups who are beneficiaries of impunity.

An attempt to insulate or shield human rights violators flouts both international human rights law and humanitarian law and it is an affront to innumerable victims of these atrocities. Complicity to candidly deal with perpetrators of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in Africa has significantly continued to contribute to escalation of conflicts. Nobody is accusing African leaders that they are not doing much to address the human rights violations in Africa but they need to appreciate the existing gaps in the continent in terms of capacities, institutional and resources and why its is important to cooperate and work with international community in dealing with complicated human rights abuse accountability processes. The unwillingness to address the problem of impunity is inconsistent and incompatible with the fundamental principles of Constitutive Act of the African Union particularly condemnation and rejection of impunity. Africa’s conflicts are caused by widespread impunity which takes the form of massive human rights atrocities, large scale pillage of public resources, illegal extraction and sale of primary resources and systematic discrimination on ethnic or religious grounds. This calls for strengthening of institutional commitment and capacity to monitor and address human rights violations continuously and to take proactive actions to intervene.

Bringing Charles Taylor and other dictators to justice other than its importance in establishing rule of law and deterring future human rights violations, give victims an opportunity to know the truth about the past and seek reparations for these violations. In addition, prosecution of perpetrators assists in interrogating the content of democracy and institutions supporting it. Transforming political and bureaucratic institutions including getting ride of human rights violators in these institutions is a direct confirmation that impunity won’t be tolerated and those committing atrocities regardless of their positions would be held fully accountable.

The leadership of various armed groups roaming in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur in Sudan, Northern Uganda and Somalia need to take Charles Taylor’s lesson seriously. The arrest and transfer of Thomas Lubanga in DRC to International Criminal Court in The Hague, and indictment of rebel leaders in Northern Uganda and Darfur to the same court has opened new chapter in pursuing justice for human rights violations. Prosecution of these people in the ICC would contribute substantively in restoring peace and stop the widespread systematic attacks against the civilians in the Great Lakes Region. Sustainable peace and democracy is not exclusive of justice.

African Union needs to facilitate the consolidation of the gains obtaining from these latest actions in the justice front through implementing the Memorandum resolutions of Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (CSSDCA) adopted in 2002. It is also imperative to redesign and strengthen the peace building and post conflict reconstruction mechanisms in Africa to include justice and accountability mechanisms. Since African leaders have at least shown political will to intervene and address the conflict crises, it is crucial for the international community including UN Security Council to adopt strategies that create conducive environment for positive engagement and partnership in handling Africa problems. Financial commitment is only one way but more significant is development of institutions with capacity to intervene rapidly and curtail escalation of impunity.

Posted by: Ndung'u Wainaina, Executive Director, International Center for Policy and Conflict at April 3, 2006 11:55 PM

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I was in Rwanda two summers ago with a study abroad program focusing on the genocide and conflict resolution. We had a young student from Oxford who was writing his dissertation on Gacaca (I'm fairly confident it was Dr. Clark) and he was kind enough to talk to us about his findings at Gacaca. He was one of the best sources of information we found, extremely knowledgeable and very pleasant. Just thought I'd mention it.

Posted by: Zach at May 20, 2008 03:54 PM

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