Confession procedure still has potential - African Rights

While the confession and guilty plea procedure alone could not hope to clear the backlog of cases related to the 1994 genocide or relieve pressure on Rwanda's saturated prisons, its potential to contribute to justice may not yet have been exhausted, according to a report released on Friday by African Rights. The scheme was an attempt to expedite justice by relieving the burden on the prosecution by offering sentence reductions in return for confessions. "Overall, the procedure has not quickened the pace of trials sufficiently; severe problems continue to afflict the administration of justice in Rwanda," African Rights stated.

The absence of confessions from category one prisoners - those who planned, organised and supervised the genocide - had prevented important information from emerging, and delays in the administration of justice had undermined the procedure, it said. Despite these and other problems, there had been a general affirmation of the broader truth of the genocide - "that the Tutsis were the target of a planned programme of extermination, led by the authorities" - and detainees no longer "stand together as a solid wall of denial and resentment," the report stated. Alongside the introduction of popular 'gacaca' courts, the confession procedure still had a role to play, it said. "The increased willingness of prisoners to cooperate might make the prospects for justice a little brighter," African Rights concluded.