GACACA AND PEACE

As we will see later in this chapter, many commentators argue that gacaca jeopardises the maintenance of peace and security in Rwanda. They contend that gacaca will not adequately punish those responsible for genocide crimes and will instead increase tensions in the community by allowing large numbers of suspects (and eventually large numbers of convicted perpetrators after they have completed their sentences) to live side by side with genocide survivors.

This section explores these sources’ interpretations, especially their relative emphases on negative or positive peace, regarding three separate issues: first, the interpretation of the nature of conflict to which gacaca is expected to provide peacebuilding responses; second, the practical ways in which gacaca facilitates peace and which actors engage in these activities; and finally, the expected outcomes of peacebuilding through gacaca. This section argues, based on a critical analysis of these sources and assessing empirical evidence, that gacaca has generally succeeded in promoting peace in Rwanda. Within the concept of positive peace, gacaca plays an important educative role by inculcating in the popula­tion ideas and methods of future cooperation and conflict resolution rather than in a strictly deterrent sense designed to eradicate the cul­ture of impunity. Contrary to the views of some human-rights critics, this section argues that a degree of initial stability and security after the genocide may need to be forfeited for the sake of positive peace, provided instability resulting from gacaca does not lead to renewed violence. For the population to engage directly and honestly at gacaca, with the aim of achieving sustainable peace, it needs to - and, in many communities, has already - overcome initial feelings of instability to confront the root causes of the genocide in a genuine and constructive manner.