NP another way to handle the evil Other

[Doug Millison]

Rwanda Elects 260,000 Judges to Try Genocide Suspects

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 1:35 p.m. ET

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) -- Rwandans have elected 260,000 judges who will apply
traditional justice to try tens of thousands of people still awaiting trial
in connection with the 1994 genocide, an official said Monday.

Gacaca, or traditional justic, involves members of a community sitting in
judgment on their peers suspected of having committed a crime. Its use is
considered key to the process of reconciliation in this small central
African nation, where half a million people -- minority Tutsis and
political moderates from the Hutu majority -- were murdered in a 100-day
slaughter organized by an extremist Hutu government.

[...] Under gacaca, judges chosen from the community will accompany the
accused to the scenes of their alleged crimes in hopes the guilty will
confess and ask forgiveness.

Those who insist on their innocence will be allowed to return to the
community. The system will begin trying suspects next year after 11,000
traditional courts are set up. [...]


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Rwanda-Traditional-Justice.html



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