Discordant Narratives in Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts

Abstract

Gacaca was the post-genocide Rwandan government’s solution to address the mass participation of citizens in the genocide against Tutsi in 1994, with the mass participation of the population in l ocal-level courts with the claim it would achieve both justice and reconciliation. Following the aftermath of genocide, in which 500,000 to one million Tutsi and Hutu moderates were massacred between April and July 1994, the Government of National Unity was faced with enormous moral, legal and administrative challenges (Prunier, 1995; Power, 2002; Des Forges, 1999).1 At the request of the Government of Rwanda (GoR), the United Nations created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on 8 November 1994 to try high-level planners of the genocide, but due to the extensive amount of time and money allotted for each case and the proximity of the ICTR in Tanzania versus Rwanda, there has been controversy concerning its effectiveness. To speed up the trials in the classic courts in Rwanda and to alleviate the overburdened prisons, the government sought a local solution to speed up the trials and to engage the active participation of Rwandans towards ‘truth-seeking’ and ‘fighting against impunity’, that resulted in the establishment of gacaca courts.2 Gacaca court hearings were led by newly trained inyangamugayo, persons of integrity selected from the community, with the community itself acting as accusers, defendants, witnesses and judges.3