17.04.07 - RWANDA/GACACAS HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE FLEEING THE GACACA TRIBUNAL TOWARDS THE RDC

Kigali, April 17, 2007 (FH) – Hundreds of people from the Rwandan district of Rutsiro, in the Western Province, have crossed the Rwando-Congolese border in the past few days, fleeing the semi-traditional gacaca courts, it was learned from a local administrative source.   “The people who are in the process of clandestinely fleeing to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are for the most part people accussed of genocide and who by ricochet, are fleeing the gacaca jurisdictions,” a local administrative authority reached by telephone from Kigali said.   According to local administrative authorities, the fugitives are pretending to seek work in the neighboring DRC while in reality, they are fleeing gacaca justice.   There are, among them, women and children and certain of them are apprehended before the border crossing.   The period of commemoration of the genocide generally registers movements of people towards border countries, a phenomenon that essentially was limited to border regions.     The gacaca courts, inspired by Rwandan tradition, were set up to try the majority of those accused of having been responsible for the 1994 genocide which caused, according to Kigali, nearly a million deaths, essentially all members of the Tutsi community.   In June 2005, nearly 10,000 Rwandans crossed the Burundian border for the same reasons.  The majority of them were forcefully repatriated.   According to figures from the National Service of Gacacas Courts, a little more than 800,000 persons are suspected of having participated in the genocide.   ESR/ER/CV   © Hirondelle News Agency