GACACA PROBLEMS, GACACA REFORMS

UNCLAS KIGALI 000110 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM RW SUBJECT: GACACA PROBLEMS, GACACA REFORMS REF: KIGALI 1090 Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The GOR seeks to streamline its gacaca system, lowering penalties for those convicted of genocide crimes, narrowing the jurisdiction of regular courts over genocide suspects, and reducing the numbers of judges per gacaca court. A new prisoner release is also soon to occur. By these reforms, the GOR intends to quicken adjudication and lessen the burdens on the nation's prisons, whose populations are growing rapidly. At the same time, security forces seek to buttress protections for survivors and witnesses. Gacaca trials continue with generally broad support by Rwandans, although procedural errors continue. The prospect of true reconciliation amongst Tutsi and Hutu populations through the gacaca process appears unlikely. Efforts to effect such reconciliation will be the work of many years. End summary. Legislation to Reduce Sentences, Quicken Adjudication -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) In draft legislation just approved by the House of Deputies and now before the Senate, the GOR will narrow regular court jurisdiction over "category one" suspects to national leaders, organizers and inciters of the killings, and those who committed rape and sexual torture. The rest (those who desecrated bodies, or were "distinguished" killers, or committed non-sexual torture) will be relegated to "category two" status, and be tried by the gacaca courts along with other category two offenders (those who killed or injured or aided the killers). The third category, those who committed offenses against property, remains the same. ¶3. (U) Penalties will also be somewhat lessened, with mandated prison terms reduced by several years for each sub-category, and with the previous condition that half of the formal sentence be spent in custody, and the rest in community service, reduced to one-third custodial time, one sixth suspended sentence, and one half community service. The net result, if the current draft is ultimately passed into law, will be shorter sentences across the board, and a quicker return by convicts to their communities. The number of judges per gacaca court will be reduced from 14 to 9 (including alternates). Surplus judges will hear cases as additional "benches" in each court. This should result in a quickened pace of adjudication. Nearly One-Third of Caseload Completed, But Many Tough Cases Remain -------------- -------------- ¶4. (U) In a January 31 meeting, gacaca courts Executive Secretary Domitilla Mukantaganzwa told emboffs that by the SIPDIS end of 2006, some 51,000 persons had had their cases heard by the gacaca courts (including appeals). The number of gacaca suspects had risen to 818,564 (often as a result of denunciation during gacaca proceedings),including 77,269 category one files, 432,557 category two files, and 308,738 category three files. She anticipated that about 60,000 category one files would be transferred from the regular courts to gacaca courts after the new legislation took effect. ¶5. (U) Fully sixty-eight percent of category three property cases had been processed by the cell-level courts, she said, entirely by accepting settlements among the parties (category three property cases do not result in jail terms, and gacaca procedures explicitly encourage private settlements). In sum, of the 818,564 cases mentioned above, approximately 260,000 had been completed by the end of 2006, or nearly one-third of the caseload. Mukantaganzwa commented that, while the remaining category two cases, just under 500,000, would be a significant challenge, she believed that the gacaca courts would complete their caseloads in 2008. Prison Population Rising, Prison Releases in Store -------------- -------------- ¶6. (SBU) This effort to reduce prison terms across the board comes at a time when the prison population, according to local contacts at the International Commission for Red Cross (ICRC),is growing by one thousand prisoners a month, nearly all the result of gacaca convictions. The total number of prisoners nationwide is now greater than 87,000 (approximately 71,000 genocide prisoners, and 16,000 non-genocide). The pressure on the government prison budget, now no longer receiving food assistance from ICRC, is severe. In recent days, the GOR has also announced in various venues the coming release of another 8,000 genocide suspects, another effort to reduce the size of the prison population. With National Expansion, Number of Attacks Are Up, Protective Measures Enhanced -------------- -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The GOR is also wrestling with recent criticism of its handling of attacks on genocide survivors, witnesses and judges. Human Rights Watch in particular in its recent report on two gruesome incidents in November drew attention to what it considered a worrisome potential trend of revenge killings by survivors on suspected attackers (in one of the cases, survivors murdered innocent Hutu villagers uninvolved in the prior killing of the nephew of a gacaca judge). The GOR in its National Dialogue in December extensively discussed these attacks, and President Kagame pledged renewed efforts to safeguard the gacaca system and its participants. At a discussion organized by the Great Lakes Human Rights League (GLHRL) in late January, Internal Security Secretary General Joseph Mutaboba reviewed GOR efforts at enhanced protective measures. ¶8. (SBU) According to Mutaboba, measures include intensive review by local authorities of survivors most at risk and accused considered most dangerous, and surveillance of both categories. Preventive detention would be employed for high-risk suspects. Survivors and local authorities would put in place regular patrols in areas where tensions ran high. Gacaca courts would also seek to try first those cases involving suspects considered likely to intimidate or attack gacaca participants. Mutobaba also mentioned that the Protective Service for Survivors and Witnesses, established in June 2006 at the office of the Prosecutor General, and its hotline services would be extended to local levels. Separately, gacaca Executive Secretary Mukantaganzwa told us that her office is expanding its own hotline services (which are offered free of charge by mobile phone giant MTN). ¶9. (U) At this GLHRL meeting, police and survivor organization Ibuka representatives presented figures for attacks on survivors for the past two years. According to their figures, 223 attacks (8 murders) occurred in 2005, and 328 attacks (11 murders) in 2006. (In a separate meeting with emboff, the Justice Ministry's Protective Service for Survivors and Witnesses offered a somewhat lower figure of 311 attacks in 2006). These "attacks" included acts of physical injury, intimidation, and destruction of crops and herd animals. Participants noted that the rise in attacks from 2005 to 2006 coincided with the expansion of gacaca from 118 pilot courts to 1545 courts nationwide. Good Faith Effort At Adjudication, But No Real Reconciliation Occurring -------------- -------------- ¶10. (U) Lawyers Without Borders (LWB) has conducted extensive sampling of gacaca trials across the nation, and produced near-verbatim accounts of hundreds of trials. In a recent public overview of its monitoring efforts LWB reported that while many gacaca courts, following expansion of the pilot program to nation-wide coverage last July, continued to commit procedural errors, the courts by and large exhibited good-faith efforts to examine events with care and reach the truth. Of the original 118 pilot gacaca courts, most now operated at an appreciably higher level of performance. LWB's implicit finding: the 1427 new gacaca courts in operation since July would improve their performance over time as well. ¶11. (SBU) However, several continuing failures reduce the prospect for true reconciliation between the Tutsi and Hutu populations. First and foremost, according to LWB, the trials so far consisted of mass attendance by local inhabitants rather than mass participation. Assembled village populations at gacaca trials rarely contributed, but rather stood mute before the judges, as the courts attempted with varying success to examine cases and assess responsibility (see reftel for similar observations by mission personnel). Further, LWB found that many gacaca courts did a poor job of articulating their decisions, often simply announcing the prison terms assessed for various offenses. In effect, not much give and take occurred at trials, and not much justification of sentences was offered. The attending villagers did not reach any perceptible accommodation as a result of the proceedings, but simply dispersed in silence. Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) The gacaca courts are a breathtakingly ambitious attempt at mass justice and truth-telling that has its share of procedural and administrative teething problems, and good-faith attempts to address them. Tens of thousands of cases have been heard and judged without incident. We see worrisome and sometimes quite disturbing acts of violence, intimidation and revenge, but in numbers that represent less than one half of one tenth of one percent of the caseload. Recent national polling finds generally broad support for the gacaca process, while Hutus and Tutsi populations worry over the respective consequences for their friends and family members (prison time, for Hutus, and lack of full accounting for their losses, for Tutsi survivors). Justice seems within reach, as courts adjudicate cases and assess penalties for the many violent and sordid acts committed during the genocide. Reconciliation, however, seems beyond the capacity of this traditional justice system, modernized and expanded, but unable to change deep-seated animosities. Efforts to change the attitudes of Rwandans on ethnic issues, such as those by the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, will be the work of many years. End Comment. ARIETTI