00.05       [Text in] During 100 days between April and August 1994, 1,050,000 people were killed in a Genocide in Rwanda

00.14       [ext out]

00:15    [Text in] This followed a history of violent conflict leading back to independence from Belgium in 1962

00:20    [text out]

00:22    [text in] In 1994, members of the majority Hutu people were mobilized to murder the minority Tutsi population, and any Hutus who opposed the Genocide

00:30    [text out]

00:31    [text in] The society was crippled

00:34    [text in] The justice system was destroyed

00:38    [text in] Hundreds of thousands were accused of genocide crimes

00:40    [text in] Tens of thousands remain in prison

00:48    [all text fade out in 1 second fade beginning 00:42]

00:49    [text in] A system of community justice was established in Rwanda to judge Genocide crimes

00:53    [text in] These are the Gacaca Courts

01:00    [all text fade out]

01:03            Semuzima….

01:06    …we killed him

01:13            Kaje….hacked at his back with a machete

01;20    …and so did I

00:30    I attended Gacaca.

01:33    To see if the justice we were promised by the government is really there.

01:38    We faced our killers

01:42            Gacaca will become our history

01:55    [text in] Kibumbwe Sector, Rwanda

01:58    [text out]

02:20    [text in] Gacaca Court of Kibumbwe

02:31    [text out]

02:42    I am also a killer like others….

02:49    I ask for forgiveness from the Republic of Rwanda

02:53    and from all Rwandans….

02;57    I would like to come back and live peacefully with them.

03:09    [text in] Gacaca Court of Kibumbwe

03:12    [text in]          Judges,

03:13    [text in] The Accused[Testifying]

03:16    [text in] The Accused - Prisoners

03:19    [text in] Non-Prisoners

03:22    [text in] Witnesses

03:26    [text in] The People of Kibumbwe

03:32    [all text fade out]

03:35    [text in] PEACE BEYOND JUSTICE

03:41    [text out]

03:46    [text in] Rwanda 2007

03;50    [text out]

03:38    [text in] Murambi School 50,000 people killed            4 survivors

04:08    [text out]

04:12    My name is Emmanuel Murangira

04:16    First we went to the Catholic Church at Gikongoro…..

04;21    but we were told by the leaders to come here to Murambi.

04:26    They told us to come here to Murambi,

04:32    and that we would be safe in this place.

04:38    And they told us they would supply us with food and water…..

04:43    but it never happened that way.

04:48    All my family members were massacred here.

04:53    I survived alone.

04:58    We have seen terrible things here….

05:04    terrible things.

05:28    [text in – typed continuous] Each room, of each school building is filled with the preserved bodies of those who died here

05:32    [text in] They are mostly children.

05:38    [text out]

05:39    [text in] A HISTORY OF CONFLICT

05:44    [text out]

05:48    I am very old….I am 93 years old.

05:54    Even if I am old, I am intelligent enough to help people…

06:00            …even when they started killing people.

06:06    A Hutu who used to have many cows, was called a Tutsi.

06:10    A Tutsi who became poor, was called a Hutu

06:16    All people are the same.

06:17    Our Grandmother and Grandfather are the same.

06:32    The question of identity in Rwanda is quite difficult and complex….

06:35    Some people say that Hutu and Tutsi are the same –

06:36    [title] Jean-Paul Kimonyo – Political Scientist & Researcher

06:39    that it is just a question of …..social and economic questions.

06:43    I don’t really agree with that.

06:45    And new findings now…..give us a more clear picture

06:50    2000 years ago…

06:51    In this region…there were groups coming from the East, North East….

06:55    …from the centre of Africa….mainly.

07:00    And some groups were here, also.

07:03    Some were, let’s say, related to….Somalis.

07:05    What you call, Kushitics.

07:08    Others were, let’s say, Bantu coming from Central Africa

07:11    And others were Nilotic, coming from Uganda……

07:15    maybe Sudan, how we call it today.

07:20    And these different groups met here.

07:22    These groups which came here formed another group, which is Rwandan society.

07:28    They shared something very important: Culture.

07:33    All of them, ‘ethnically’ became Bantus.

07: 35            meaning that all Rwandans speak the same language,

07:40    They have the same kind of religion

07:42    They lived on the same territories.

07:44    There is a certain differentiation, a very ancient differentiation that still exists

07:50    At the same time, there is this mix – profound mix

07:54    And there is a very intimate sharing of culture

08:01    The colonialists, in the beginning, called them 3 different races,

08:04    and then they called them castes, and finally ethnicities.

08:09    But in reality, these groups lived together.

08:11    [title] Celestin Kanimba Misago – Director – Rwandan Museum of History

08:17    Often, there is history as it is, and history as it is written in books,

08:26    The colonial powers manipulated this question of identity

08:30    [title] Jean-Paul Kimonyo – Political Scientist & Researcher

08:30    It’s them who came here and said that Tutsi were superior, Hutu were inferior….

08:35    The colonial power, and the church, were very close to the traditional elite –

08:42    - Chiefs and Mwami [Tutsi Leaders]

08:43    And then they shifted completely alliances.

08:45    The Belgians and the Church started to back the Hutus

08:50    And also manipulate them

08:52    And they manipulated them on the basis of identity.

08:55    [Text in] In 1962, Rwanda gained independence from Belgium. The new Parmehutu government took control of the country

09:04    text out

09:08    People were taught to kill since 1959,

09:16    it’s not easy to change their minds.

09:25    Since that time, they knew that killing a Tutsi is not a problem.

09:30    [title] Jean-Paul Kimonyo – Political Scientist & Researcher

09:30    Since 1959, the new Hutu leadership used the Tutsis as a scapegoat

09:39            Meaning that each time the regime had a problem, they came up with this idea that

09:45    “The Tutsis are the ones who are threatening you, you have to get rid of Tutsis”

09:51    And they start, through a mechanism of manipulation….

09:56    of propaganda – but a very powerful one –

09:59    They start to make people forget about how people used to live together.

10:04            [subtitle text fade out]

10:09    The Genocide had been carried out through mass popular participation

10:15    The Genocide of 1994 was a kind of conclusion…..

10:19    of a trend that started in 1959.

10:22            [subtitle text out]

10:26    [title in] ORIGINS OF GACACA JUSTICE

10:33    [title fade out]

10:34    From the times of our ancestors, Gacaca has been used.

10:39            Meaning that if there was a conflict within the family, or a problem in the family

10:40    [title] Sister Marie Medard – Roman Catholic Nun

10:46    they would take it to Gacaca.

10:49    They could solve the problem, reconcile the families,

10:53    and the families could get back together.

10:55    Work together, live together.

11:00    [text fade out]

11:04    The Gacaca of old was one of the first ever social institutions

11:10    [title] Celestin Kanimba Misago – Director – Rwandan Museum of History

11:10    A social organization, which existed in the past,

11:14    and in times when there were conflicts

11:16    they tried to resolve these problems within the family

11:21    or within the village themselves.

11:27    and Gacaca signifies people coming together,

11:30    and discussing,

11:33    ….the elders always resolve the conflicts

11:40    The legal pressures on the justice system here

11:44    [title] – Tharcisse Karugarama – Rwandan Minister of Justice

11:44            immediately after 1994 were immense

11:48    and they came from different corners,

11:52            different stake holders in the system

11:55    First you had massive arrests across the country

12:00    So you had, prisons all over the country overfilled with people

12:05    and there was a cry for justice  [TEXT IN] REMERA PRISON, KIGALI

12:10    [text in] Number of Judges in Rwanda…….Before 1994

12:16    [text in] After 1994

12:20    [text in] Number of Prosecutors     before 1994

12:23    After 1994

12;28    [all text out]

12:29    [text in] Number of Judicial Support Staff            Before 1994

12:29    There was no personnel

12:33    [text in] November 1994

12:33    No prosecutors, no judges to handle the cases

12:38    So the country started by

12:40            reconstructing itself, by reconstructing the judicial sector

12:44    the investigative capacity, the prosecutive capacity

12:49    and the adjucative capacity, and the courts

12:52    All that had to be constructed afresh

12:55    the first trials took place in the Eastern Region, in December 1996

13:01    In the meantime, we found that

13:05    the trials of the genocide criminals were very slow.

13:10    [title] – Alphonse Hitiyaremye – Deputy Prosecutor General

13:10    In the beginning we had more than 120 000 prisoners detained

13:17    But I can tell you that after 5 years, using the Classical justice system

13;26    we had only tried slightly more than 6000 cases…

13:31    [title] Ambassador Denis Polisi – Deputy Speaker, Chamber of Deputies, Rwanda

13:31    There were 132 000 people in prison suspected on committing genocide

13:40    We realized that to judge all these people…..

13:45    would take us around 300 years

13:49            Therefore we had to find another formula…

13:55    that could give justice in a suitable time.

14:00    [title] – Tharcisse Karugarama – Rwandan Minister of Justice

14:00    The courts as we know them, as we inherited from our western friends and colonizers

14:07    was not adequate, it was not moving

14:11    and it was creating despondency

14:14    It soon became very obvious that these pressures were too much

14:18    So the idea came from there that we have to look for another system,

14:27    [title] – Domitilla Mukantaganzwa – Executive Secretary, National Service of Gacaca Courts

14:27    A system which can combine among its mission

14:30    justice and reconciliation

14:32            because, the analysis of how the genocide has been

14:38            committed, we found that people have killed their family members

14:43    their neighbours, their children, their mothers, and sometimes their fathers

14:48 &nb