12.11.09 - RWANDA/GACACA - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GACACA COURTS

Kigali, November 12, 2009 (FH) - Kigali will host on December 09 an international conference to evaluate the achievements of the Gacaca courts, Radio Rwanda announced on Thursday.

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According to a Cabinet's press release, the conference will be entitled : " Assessment of Gacaca courts and of the National Unity and Reconciliation Process".

The gacaca courts, adapted from a form of Rwandan traditional justice, are tasked with trying suspected perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide which left some 800,000  people dead, according to the UN. They are not responsible for trying  "planners of genocide at the national level" .

These village courts, whose judges are elected from the community, can hand down sentences up to life imprisonment, which is now the maximum penalty in Rwanda. They have so far tried more than a million people.

ER/GF

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