6 June 2007 - The New 'Instruction'

So, nothing too exciting here. Monday I sat through a very long meeting which was, of course, in Kinyarwanda. I did receive a little help with translation. The government has been complaining (quite openly actually) that there are too many people in prison. They have told the National Service of Gacaca Courts to do something about this. So, they have recently passed a new ‘instruction’ as they call it that allows prisoners who confess to do their community service first and then serve their prison sentence. I think they are attempting to stagger out the prison sentences so not everyone is serving at once.

Of course this is only available to prisoners who confess now. It is not retroactive. However, prisoners that have already been tried can appeal in order to serve their community service before finishing out their prison sentence. It will be interesting to see if this will actually alleviate the congestion in the prisons. It has already been over 12 years since they have been in prison. One would think that if they were going to confess, they would have done so already. They have already offered several incentives to confess. And, I don’t know how many people would really want to be set free knowing that they will have to return to prison in a few years. Although the prisons are horrific, so maybe they would prefer a break in between? I’m not sure I fully understand this concept. But, I don’t know that there were many other options.

People are working very hard to come up with solutions to all of these problems. Yet, I don’t know if it is even possible to really come up with solutions that are sufficient enough to deal with these problems. The National Service of Gacaca Courts has taken on a virtually impossible task, and has received a lot of criticism for not doing the job adequately enough. The trials are going too slow, but then they change things and the trials are not efficient enough. People are upset that there are so many people in prison, but then if anyone is released the survivor groups become infuriated, which is understandable…it just shows that it is pretty much a no win situation.

I spent a few months working for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda which was the international response to the genocide. They had much fewer cases and a lot more money and yet they didn’t seem to be capable of much more. I know that the ICTR has received its share of criticism, but it seems unfair to try to hold Gacaca to international standards when the ICTR, which is run by the United Nations, cannot even satisfy the international community.

I know these various organizations are only trying to do their job. People are very concerned that if this situation is not taken care of sufficiently then it could lead to a second genocide. It is very important to have organizations which monitor countries. It is just frustrating that no one seems to pay attention to what these organizations say until something like the Genocide has happened and it’s too late.

I know the situation here is not hopeless. Already so much has been accomplished and Rwanda is attempting to put its past behind them. However, at times, it does seem hopeless. Just when everything appears to be going well, you realize there is this huge mess which is impossible to clean up.

And on that happy note…

By the way, there is no longer a movie theatre in Kigali. Apparently Planet, this was the name of the movie theatre, was just a front for a crack ring and has been shut down. At least this is what I have been told, and it definitely appears to have been closed down. Very, very interesting. Kigali is such a bizarre place.