Post-Genocide Justice

I don't know of justice is really possible after something as horrible as a genocide, especially in Rwanda's case. The Rwandan genocide was unique in that after losing the civil war the Hutu government convinced people that the Tutsis were evil and inhuman and were going to kill them if they took power, so that when they began telling people to kill Tutsis it was carried out by the common people, neighbors killing their neighbors, making it the only genocide to be carried out with such mass participation.

This created huge problems when it came to trying all of these cases after the genocide. With hundreds of thousands of killers, prisons were massively overcrowded, and it would have taken more than a hundred years to try all those cases. For this unique situation, the government created a unique solution.

The pre-colonial gacaca courts had been used to settle small disputes. They were community courts, where disputes were judged and settled by a family elder, and then the person who had done the wrong would provide a calabash of beer and everyone would drink together and all would be well. The government modified this tradition to try genocide cases. There is a gacaca court for each cell (a small unit of community organization). The cases are judged by a group of 9 moral and trustworthy people voted by their community, and the courts cannot meet without at least 100 adults from the community present to hear the testimony of the accused and contribute any information they have. The idea behind this is that the genocide was carried out in full view, so that anyone who was here at the time saw it happen and has some information to contribute. The communities listen to the testimony of the accused and of the victims, if they are living, and they talk about what happened, everyone with someone relevant to contribute sharing what they know to either verify or call into question the testimonies, and then once all the information has been shard the judges decide the sentence. But that's only the spark notes version. While I'm here I intend to do my research project on gacaca, so if you want to know more feel free to ask me when I get back, I hope to know a lot about it by the end of May.

One of the main benefits of gacaca is that is has given victims the right to confront those who have wronged them. It has allowed them to learn what happened to their loved ones, and in some cases even to find out where their bodies were buried so they could bury them properly. Achieving this closure, working to reintegrate the perpetrators into society, and in some way begin to heal the community, is the focus of post-genocide justice. There were so many perpetrators that retributive justice in the Western sense, putting someone in prison to punish them for their crimes, was impractical, and while that is being done for more serious cases, the goal has largely been to serve justice in a way that sensitizes the perpetrators to their crimes, has them pay their debt to society, and then, most importantly, allows them to be reintegrated into society in a way that is effective enough to facilitate healing and ensure that more violence does not break out. There is an emphasis on perpetrators confessing, apologizing, and asking forgiveness, and in prison they are given classes and taught crafts so that when they complete their sentences they will be able to provide for themselves and contribute to the country's economic development. Even many of the sentences are designed so that the convicts help rebuild the society they destroyed; a few years ago, the government created the program Travail pour l'Interet General, work for the general interest, known as TIG. It was designed both to relieve the overcrowded prisons and for the already-stated purpose of having the convicts rebuild society. Those who serve their sentences through TIG live in camps where they work on projects such as building homes for vulnerable families or chipping apart rocks that will be used to pave roads. They serve shorter sentences than they would if they were in prison, and they are able to interact with their surrounding communities, better facilitating reconciliation and reintegration. We got to visit one of these camps yesterday, and I am incredibly grateful for the experience.

The first thing I noticed when we got to the camp was the almost complete lack of security. The fence, like many fences here, was made of bundles of dry grass and was only about chest high. The gate was nothing but a string tied across the opening in the grass fence. There was one armed guard. Our director, Dan, explained to us later that the tigists (those serving their sentences through TIG) rarely run away; in the camps they are given food and water and they get to see their families regularly, but were they to run away it would mean trying to survive as a fugitive in the Congo, where provisions would be hard to come by, and their families would most likely not go with them. Also, in many of the tigists want to be there so that they can repay their debts and hopefully make up for what they've done. We got to meet with a group of them, and I think that was one of the most edifying and enlightening experiences of the trip. When we first met them, I was struck by how kind they seemed. They greeted us very warmly, taking our hands in both of theirs and asking “Amakuru?”, “How are you?”. It took me a minute to remember that they had all killed people. I still like them. They spoke to us very openly about their experiences, about how angry they were with the old government for convincing them that the Tutsis weren't human and that they should kill them.

“They told us they had tails,” one man said, “What kind of person has a tail?”

They also said how grateful they were to have been forgiven by those they had harmed. One man described how he got down on his knees during his gacaca hearing to beg for forgiveness. Another told us how he has told his children everything he did, and that he doesn't want them to think that he is innocent like some children do of their parents because he wants them to learn from his mistakes so that something like that can never happen again. They were truly lovely people. When we arrived they clapped and sang a song about how happy they were that we were there, and before we left they made us get up and dance with them. I am so blessed to have met those people. Yes, they have killed people, but they are still people, and I am no better than they are. I do not believe that the mistakes someone made nearly 20 years ago should define them. Yes, they did something very wrong, and yes, they deserve to be in TIG, but they are still people. I am just like them and they are just like me, we were just born in different places at different times. I have no right to judge them or say that they should not be allowed back into society, because they should. That is the only way for true healing to occur.