Commentators’ perspectives on economic development through gacaca
The most extensive articulation of economic development as an aim of gacaca comes from commentators, who in the main focus on economic development at the community level. Similar to the government’s view, the critical literature focuses on the economic impact of the returned workforce from the prisons and the use of community service as a punitive measure.
The focus on community service as a mode of punishment is consistent with most commentators’, particularly non-Rwandan observers’, espousal of the dominant discourse on gacaca with its focus on deterrent justice. As Francesco Giotta, former Chief of Party of the Johns Hopkins University Rwanda Communications Project, told the Gacaca Symposium in 2000, ?One should not forget that the program of participatory justice does not only imply reduction of the sentence, but also deferral of imprisonment to public labour. This is tantamount to releasing [tens of thousands of] detainees in order to achieve over two billion hours of public labour.'[428] In this sense, the punishment of convicted perpetrators may contribute to the economic well-being of entire communities. A UK Department for International Development commissioned report by Oxford Policy Management in 2003 states similarly that gacaca would alleviate economic pressures at the community level:From an economic perspective, the continuation of large numbers of untried prisoners imposes considerable costs. There is a direct cost to the prison service. Prisoners’ households also bear a considerable cost, both in terms of loss of labour power, but also in terms of the time that prisoners’ wives spend travelling to and from the prisons to visit and feed their husbands. It is reasonable to assume that some prisoners will be found innocent and others will be freed on the basis that eight years is sufficient sentence for their crimes, thus reducing both prison and family costs.
Gacaca should also return labour resources to the rural areas.[429]PRI, which has reported on the use of community service since the outset of gacaca, argues that this approach to punishment may translate to individual economic development, particularly as convicted perpetrators learn new skills, such as brick-making and house construction, from their time in TIG camps. ?In an economic recession, and with difficult access to land’, PRI argues, ?this can be a real asset for the tigistes who are for the most part farmers.’[430] Some Rwandan commentators also focus on gacaca’s possible economic benefits for individuals. Karekezi argues, ?[the release of prisoners]... will relieve women and their families who come to care for their menfolk at the prisons. I see women visiting the prisons with their babies on their backs, and I tell myself, “These children who have grown up going to feed their fathers in prison, what kind of life do they lead?”’.[431] Karekezi states that keeping so many suspects in jail for so long places an immense emotional and financial burden on the general population. The overcrowding of prisons is therefore not only a problem for detainees but also for their loved ones who carry the weight of their absence from homes and workplaces.