Over 100 provincial Gacaca court judges on Thursday, August 10, completed a
course on conducting genocide trials in the second and third categories, held
at Huye District hall.
The workshop, an initiative of the National Gacaca Commission, had Gacaca
judges trained on laws and procedures regarding genocide trials in Gacaca
courts.
According to Néhémie Ntazika, a Gacaca Courts lawyer who trained the judges,
commonly known as "inyangamugayo", the training aimed at equipping the
latter with skills to better execute genocide trials during the Gacaca
proceedings.
"This training was aimed at providing Gacaca judges in cells with skills to
try genocide trials classified in third level because we want to start
genocide trials on the cell level. We will also have other Gacaca judges trained on
how to try genocide trials on second level in sectors," Ntazika, who is also
the envoy of the National Gacaca Commission in the province, said.
Suspected genocide criminals are classified in three categories. The first
category is made up of those who are considered by prosecution as the
masterminds of the 1994 Genocide and those who committed rape during the mayhem; the
second is made up of those who executed the Genocide by participating in
killing people; while the third category is composed by those who looted property
during the Genocide but did not kill.
Suspects classified in the third level are to be tried by the traditional
courts in the cells, while those in the second category will be tried by Gacaca
courts at the sector level. Suspects in the first category are to be judged
by contemporary courts.
According to Uwase Claudine, one of the participants, the training helped
them to know how to apply what is written in Gacaca statutes about genocide
trials.
"This training helped us to understand law books we read on genocide trials.
Like today, we did an exercise about trying a genocide case and we now know
very well what to do when we start trying genocide suspects," Uwase said.
_AllAfrica.com - The New Times (Kigali)_
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200608140545.html)
by Eugene Kwibuka in Southern Province
August 13, 2006