Zero: A poem & Brief History of Africa's Gacaca Law
I'd always been interested in the history of the Holocaust. I'd become a member of the the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) here in Washington, DC a few years ago and did some volunteer work there. One of the exhibitions held there a couple of years ago was the Gacaca (pronounced Guh cha cha) Panel Discussion and Film regarding the mass genocide in Rwanda. It affected me deeply as does that part of history and anything that shows the courageous battle of a people fighting for equality or rights or whatever. I'm always attracted to the survival and power of subjugated persons who are unjustly treated just because they happen to be different or don't follow the rules of some idiot or some idiotic policy. To see the fight in someone or some group when they've been put down to the lowest they could go and then conquer that abuse and live better and stronger than ever before is so admireable.A few months ago, I became a volunteer with the ONE Campaign in the fight to end Global AIDS and Poverty. The poem below was to be read at one of DC's monthly poetry event's hosted by Tim'm West called the Front Porch.
The poem stems from my work with the ONE Campaign and DATA.org, and my attendance from that panel discussion at the USHMM.
And just a few things before I get called unpatriotic or some goofy crap like that:
I'm an Italian/Greek American and proud of it. Born in a country where I've been able to be an artist because of the allowances of American freedom and independence. But a blind man could see that America has had it's shameful moments (Ollie North, Clinton's Adultery, Bush's Ballot's, etc.) and sometimes the things our government does, (or doesn't do) makes me cringe a bit. And I'm sure most of the things I do would make our Government cringe even more. But I don't run the country. So if I offend anyone with my verse on Uncle Sam, it's not my intention, but rather how I feel when it's drilled over and over in my daily work within government that "if some countries call for help doesn't positively, monetarily impact the US, we shouldn't be concerned". ugh.
Hopefully you readers might learn just a little bit of something new after reading this entry. There are links at the very end of this blog to different organizations that can further your education of some of the topics here. Thank you very much for reading.
Huggs,
cenzo.
Zero
As a little boy I was taught that zero’s mean nothing
I’m older now and have learned most nothing’s are something
I see more zero’s written at the end of yearly death tolls
Of children and mothers and unfortunate new souls
As a Fed, I’m taught to ignore anything that don’t promote Uncle Sam
But sometimes that good ‘ol boy can be a dirty old man
HIV and AIDS in Africa is on a scale that is beyond anybody's belief.
Are there enough armbands and concerts and words to give the correct relief
The blinding figures are written down
All the zeros across the page roll off the desk onto the ground
Children and daughters and son’s
replaced by the zero’s – replaced could be everyone
And does Mandela’s golden year’s thought
Seem bittersweet through the years we have fought
Does he say to himself “Yes, we've conquered apartheid,
But how long can African mothers endure another type of genocide."
On Gacaca* lawns would my tears and tongue be spread fast
To beg for a healing future so as not to defile the past
And a standing society says to me “Why care about Africa? Don’t waste a tear get off your knees"
But Africa is where man first walked, and I do anything I damn well please.
And how can intelligent man peacefully live with such a situation in our world?
I know I can't. – cenzo 28aug05
*In 1994, over a million Rwandan citizens were killed during the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi and the massacres of Hutu opponents, planned and carried out by the previous government. Approximately three million people were forced into exile. The country was laid to waste. The institutions in charge of upholding the law (courts, police, prisons, etc.) ceased to function.
After the genocide, almost 130,000 people accused of having organized and taken part in it were put into prison in the worst possible conditions. Eight years on, around 125,000 are still in detention awaiting trial. A general amnesty was out of the question as the new government (Government of National Unity), the Rwandan people and the international community all agreed that those responsible for the genocide should be held accountable for their acts in order to eradicate the culture of impunity, reinforce respect for the law and uphold the principle of punishment for crimes.
The government came to the conclusion that a conventional European-style justice system could not be the only solution to the problems Rwanda was facing. This is why it began searching for alternatives in 1998. In 1999, this led to the proposal of an alternative justice system: the Gacaca (pronounced guh cha cha) jurisdictions, a new system of participatory justice (a reworking of the traditional community conflict resolution system) in which the whole of society would take part. In July 1999, the government published a paper on the "Gacaca jurisdictions", which was the follow-up document to a series of discussions with a number of groups of representatives of the Rwandan population and the international community.After several redrafts, the "Gacaca law" was adopted and published in March 2001.
The main principle of the Gacaca courts is to bring together all of the protagonists at the actual location of the crime and/or massacre, i.e., the survivors, witnesses and presumed perpetrators. All of them should participate in a debate on what happened in order to establish the truth, draw up a list of victims and identify the guilty. The debates will be chaired by non-professional "judges", the inyangamugayo, elected from among the men of integrity of the community, who will have to decide on the sentence for those found guilty. According to the government, the advantages of the new Gacaca jurisdictions will be as follows:
- Neither the victims nor the suspects will have to wait for years for justice to be done. This means the process will be sped up.
- The cost to the taxpayer for the upkeep of prisons will be reduced, enabling the government to concentrate on other urgent needs.
- The participation of every member of the community in revealing the facts of a situation will be the best way to establish the truth.
- The Gacaca courts will enable the genocide and other crimes against humanity to be dealt with much faster than the formal justice system. This should end the culture of impunity that currently exists.
- The new courts will put into practice innovative methods in terms of criminal justice in Rwanda, in particular sentencing people to Community Service to aid the reintegration of criminals into society.
- The application of the law should aid the healing process and national reconciliation in Rwanda, which is seen as the only guarantee of peace, stability and future development of the country, as well as obliging the Rwandan people to take political responsibility.
The people accused of genocide are divided into four categories:
No. 1 Category: the planners, organizers and leaders of the genocide, those who acted in a position of authority, well known murderers and those guilty of rape and sexual torture.
No. 2 Category: those guilty of voluntary homicide, of having participated or been complicit in voluntary homicide or acts against persons resulting in death, of those having inflicted wounds with intent to kill or who committed other serious violent acts which did not result in death.
No. 3 Category: those who committed violent acts without intent to kill.
No. 4 Category: those who committed crimes against property.
The accused in the first category will be judged by the ordinary courts, i.e., Courts of First Instance / Magistrates' Courts.
For all other cases the government created around 11,000 Gacaca jurisdictions, each made up of 19 elected judges known for their integrity. Over 254,000 of these civil judges were elected between the 4th and 7th October 2001 and received training in 2002 before the courts began to function.
There are four levels of jurisdiction for the different categories of crime (2, 3 and 4) tried by the Gacaca courts. Only the first and second categories may appeal. The judgements are then examined by the highest district and provincial levels of the administration.
The 9,201 Gacaca jurisdictions at "cell" level investigate the facts, classify the accused and try the fourth category cases (no appeals).The 1,545 Gacaca jurisdictions at sector level are in charge of third category crimes.The 106 Gacaca jurisdictions at district level hear the second category cases and the third category appeals.The 12 Gacaca jurisdictions at provincial level or of Kigali are in charge of appeals of second category cases.
Three structures coexist at each jurisdictional level:
The General Assembly (at cell level, the entire population over the age of 18; at all other levels a group of 50 or 60 elected "people of integrity"),
The Chair: 19 judges in each jurisdiction,
The coordination committee made up of 5 people
The Gacaca courts do not have the right to pass the death penalty. Defendants who were aged between 14 and 18 at the time of the crimes receive sentences that are half as long as those for adults. Those who were less than 14 years old at the time are not sentenced and are set free.
With the exception of defendants in the second category who refuse to confess and plead guilty, it has been decided that all the other prisoners in categories 2 and 3 may serve half their prison sentences doing Community Service. The time already spent in prison will be deducted from this sentence.
The defendants in No. 4 Category will not be sentenced. If no agreement can be reached on the return of stolen or destroyed goods, the Chair of the cell's Gacaca jurisdiction will decide on the damages to be paid.
The new Gacaca system is based on a participatory justice system and on its reconciliatory virtues. According to the Justice Ministry, the population that was in the hills at the time of the genocide will be "witness, judge and plaintiff".
and of course my poetry site at www.4bidden-fruit.com :)
posted by Saint Vincent @ 3:10 PM
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