CNN - Rwanda prepares for genocide trials

CNN - Rwanda prepares for genocide trials - Mar. 1, 1996

Rwanda prepares for marathon genocide trials

March 1, 1996
Web posted at: 9:30 p.m. EST (0230 GMT)

From Correspondent Gary Streiker

KIGALI, Rwanda (CNN) -- With more than 65,000 prisoners squeezed into Rwanda's prisons, virtually all of them accused of genocide, there has been increasing pressure on this central African nation's government to begin the long-awaited judicial process that observers hope will punish the guilty and free the innocent.

Even though new detention centers have eased the crowding, the prisons still pack in nearly five times their capacity. Still, prison conditions have improved since last year and massive aid from the International Red Cross has led to better food, sanitation, and medical care.

It was only recently that the government announced that the first genocide trial would begin by early April. Given the paucity of trained prosecutors and limited resources for investigation, Kigali chief prosecutor Tigrius Cuicredidi admits that he has a difficult job ahead of him. "But I like my job, because I want good justice in my country," he said.

In 1994 more than 500,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi minority, were killed in massacres organized by the Hutu government, then in power. The killing stopped after the rebel-led Rwandan Patriotic Front won a four-year-civil war and drove the former government into exile.

Some say it is high time the judicial process began.

"Any person being recognized of war crimes or crimes against humanity has to be judged," said Philippe Lazzarini of the International Red Cross. "I think it would be time now to start this kind of judgment within the country."

But government officials say that until recently, there were not enough investigators, lawyers, or judges to operate a system of justice here. Most of those in the old system were killed in the genocide or fled the country as refugees.

"We are doing what no country has had to do in history -- build up a system of justice from scratch, to cope with the aftermath of genocide within the course of a single year," said Gerard Gahima of the Ministry of Justice.

The task ahead seems gigantic and arduous. There are 11 district prosecutor offices in Rwanda, and some are compiling more than 10,000 separate cases of genocide each.

After long debate, the government has decided what kind of justice will apply to the suspects and what kind of distinctions will be made between those who planned and organized the massacres and those who carried them out.

But there will be a simplified legal process to speed up the trials and lighter sentences for those who confess.

"So we don't expect many of them to be sentenced to death, as the law provides for the crimes they committed," Gahima said.

Senior officials of the old April 1994 government and ruling party have fled Rwanda and found sanctuary in other countries. Rwandans are told the International Tribunal will track them down and put them on trial.

But for most Rwandans, the International Tribunal is too distant, its promise too vague. They expect real justice from their own prosecutors and courts -- justice on their own terms and under their control.