The Place for Gacaca
Toward the end of An Ordinary Man, Rusesabagina writes,
Justice on the grass was never designed to address something as grave as genocide. It was designed to solve crimes of missing goats and stolen bananas. Serious felony crimes were always referred to the courts of the king, even in the days of my grandfather’s grandfather. I am a defender of the wisdom of the common man, but it is fantasy to expect a village of laypeople—with their own layers of local intrigue, jealousies, and loyalties—to effectively mete out real justice for something as horrid and earthshaking as mass murder. It would be like taking a rapist to a traffic magistrate. That such a flimsy system has been developed to handle genocide crimes serves only to trivialize the genocide. It insults the dead. For another thing, the entire point of gacaca was not punishment but reconciliation. You were supposed to apologize to the man you had wronged and share a bowl of banana beer as a sign of renewed friendship. But how in God’s name can a man “reconcile� with people he has raped, tortured, and murdered? How can things ever be put right with the parents of a baby who has been ripped limb from limb? Gacaca is a well-intentioned idea but punishing crimes of genocide requires the authority, stature, and rigor of a state-sponsored court with impartial judges and firm rules of evidence. (p 197)
You can view two very different sites related to gacaca. First there is the explanation and procedure for the use of gacaca according to National University of Rwanda. It appears from this that all crimes of genocide, except the mastermind crimes can be tried through gacaca. In a Public Radio International interview with Domitilla Mukantaganzwa, the government official in charge of the Gacaca courts, and other experts on the system, some of the problems that Rusesabagina presents are discussed. It goes as far as to say that gacaca is increasing fear and tension in the communities using them.
Perhaps punishment, not reconciliation, is the goal, as Rusesabagina writes. But orderly punishment requires a lot of officials and the number of criminals is so vast. Where can gacaca fit in? Or can it?