Amnesty calls on international community to support Gacaca

The human rights advocacy group, Amnesty International, has called on the international community to support the Rwandan village court system, known as Gacaca, adapted to bring to trial tens of thousands of prisoners accused of participation in the 1994 genocide.

But Amnesty said on Thursday that an independent and transparent monitoring system must be established for Gacaca; that the international community must ensure Rwandan government took prompt action to halt violations of fair trial standards; and that it must also provide support to enable the Rwandans to meet international standards at places of detention.

Amnesty added that while it recognised "the pressing need" to bring to justice those accused of participation in the genocide, it feared that if key shortcomings were not redressed Gacaca would fail to provide the justice, truth and reconciliation.
"Gacaca may become a vehicle for summary and arbitrary justice that fails defendants and genocide survivors alike," it said.

It added that the Rwandan government must ensure that international standards of a fair trial were guaranteed, including the presumption of innocence and the right to prepare a defence. It would also have to ensure that Gacaca defendants have the right to appeal to the formal court system; provide protection to magistrates; defendants and witnesses; and promptly investigate any allegations of intimidation. It should also open investigations into human rights violations committed by its own forces before and since coming into power.

"The extrajudicial nature of Gacaca and the inadequate preparation for its start, coupled with the present government's intolerance of dissent and [its] unwillingness to address its own poor human rights record, risk subverting the new system," Amnesty said.