Post Genocide justice and reconciliation process in Rwanda
The
post conflict justice process of confronting legacies of abuses has become an
everyday phenomenon where politicians, jurists, academics, civil society
organizations, and the international community all demand a say in how, where,
and why to look back and defy systems and individuals whose actions do not
belong in a liberal democracy. Rwanda has had to reckon with challenges in a
nation’s struggle to confront the legacies of the genocide and build a cohesive
and unified state. The process has not been easy but good progress has been
recorded in Rwandese post genocide justice and reconciliation process. The
convolutions surrounding the process of Rwanda’s transition from the ashes of
the genocide and the process of reconstruction of a nation happens within
complex social transformations.
In
a country where a massacre of eleven percent of its population in a span of 100
days took place the difficult has always been in crafting responses that can
strike the inherently delicate and problematic but necessary balance. The one
between needs of victims and their families, the need to treat in a humane, fair
and just manner the perpetrators of horrendous crimes of genocide and the
stability of a nation emerging from conflict but one that desires to tackle its
past and move forward to peace and stability. It cannot be more daunting.
The
challenges of Rwanda since the end of the genocide have revolved around the
demands for justice, peace and reconciliation. These entails issues such as how
to ensure justice for the victims, treat perpetrators fairly and ensure
non-recurrence of what happened starting that chilly April of 1994. In this
regard Rwanda has had immense difficulty in dealing with its past. Rwanda
attempted the model of prosecutions without being able to bring many of the
alleged perpetrators to justice because its internal judicial system had been
destroyed and many of the court personnel including judges and prosecutors had
been victims of the genocide as well. One of the judicial mechanisms that came
in handy was the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) with headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The ICTR has gone
to the books of history as one of the most renowned international tribunals. However,
the slow pace of criminal justice system coupled with concerns that such a
tribunal focused on punitive measures with little or no elements of
reconciliation, peace and stability, Rwanda came up with another model in the
country’s attempts to ensure post conflict justice and reconciliation; the
Gacaca courts The community based courts have done tremendous work especially
in significantly reducing the case logs and decongesting Rwanda’s prisons which
were flooded with suspected perpetrators of the genocide.
Post Genocide justice and reconciliation process in Rwanda
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
April 05, 2016
Rating:
No comments: