RWANDA: Plans to reform traditional courts

KIGALI, 16 June 2004 (IRIN) - Rwanda plans to reform traditional gacaca court by slashing the number of courts and judges as it seeks to apply the system countrywide, an official told IRIN on Tuesday. "Drawing from the experience during pilot trials, we have decided to make a lot of amendments aimed at checking on some weaknesses before the courts are rolled out," said Charles Kayitana, a spokesman for Inkiko-Gacaca, the National Service of Gacaca Jurisdictions. He said under the proposed reforms, the number of judges would reduce from the current 258,209 to 169,400. The number of judges per court would go from 19 to nine and the highest two levels of courts would be scrapped. Inkiko-Gacaca, which means gacaca courts in the local Kinyarwanda language, was introduced in 2001 to ease pressure on the national justice system in relation to the 1994 genocide where at least 80,000 suspects are in detention awaiting trial. Others are still at large. As part of the reforms, the National Service plans to hold fresh elections for new judges in early July before the courts begin operating. Unlike the first elections that were open to all registered voters, this time only current judges of gacaca courts would vote, the service's spokesman said. "We want to choose from the existing judges the most competent and educated ones to run the courts at the sector and cell levels," Kayitana said. Trial runs of gacaca courts were held in only 106 of the 10,555 courts nationwide. The National Service also recently announced that it would introduce computers to speed up trials, as well as to make it easier and faster for information to flow between village courts and the commission's secretariat. Gacaca courts in villages give residents, prisoners and the families of victims an opportunity to face each other about their roles and experiences during the 100 days of genocide in which, according to the government, at least some 937,000 people died. There proceeding will take place before a panel of locally elected judges who then issue verdicts.