06.03.08 - RWANDA/GACACA - GACACA AMENDMENT TO FORCE SECOND CATEGORY KILLERS TO DO COMMUNITY WORK

Kigali, 6 March 2008 (FH) - The law on Gacacas, semi-traditional Rwandan courts which are about to conclude cases of genocide, could again be amended so that alleged authors of the genocide classified in the second category (non-planning executants) could face only Work of General Interest (WGI), a system of community work as part of the sentence.

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According to the representative of association of survivors (IBUKA), who preferred anonymity, the revision would help to reduce the sentences.

The killers who will have confessed their crimes, and who will have asked for forgiveness, will be exclusively sentenced to WGI.

The project was considered during a meeting between the National Service of Gacaca Courts (SNJG) and the IBUKA representatives held on 26 February at the Alpha Palace hotel of Kigali.

"The debates are contradictory and amendment touches significant points. For example, how to go about on judgment of the authors of rape and planners of genocide at the national and provisional levels," said the source.

The draft amendment was being studied in a parliamentary commission, after it was voted in a plenary session recently, a source from parliament said.

Since establishment of these semi-traditional courts in 2001, four amendments have been adopted.

The Gacaca trials, which should have been finished by the end of last year, however, continue in several regions because of backlog of cases.

Nearly a million people have already been tried for their participation in the genocide of 1994, which resulted into deaths of 800, 000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, according to United Nations estimates.

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