Governnientls perspectives on reconciliation through gacaca
Official pronouncements on the theme of reconciliation generally, and on reconciliation as an outcome of gacaca specifically, are increasingly common but usually vaguely defined.
Sarkin argues that the term â€?reconÂciliation’ is new to the government’s vocabulary and that post-genocide necessities have forced the government to consider for the first time the meaning and requirements of reconciliation.1 The introduction to the Gacaca Law lists â€?justice and reconciliation in Rwanda’[694] [695] as one of gacaca’s main aims, while the Gacaca Manual states that a primary objective of gacaca is to facilitate â€?the reconciliation of the Rwandan people and the reinforcing of their unity through the creation of an environment favourable to dialogue and to collaboration in the search for a concerted solution to the problems of justice’.[696] Drawing on the traditional practice of gacaca, the post-genocide institution is, accordÂing to the NURC, â€?designed to be reconciliatory, restorative as well as community participatory'.[697] [698] The form of reconciliation described in the NURC document is group-to-group, focusing on mending relationships between groups of genocide perpetrators and survivors who are assumed to have lived in a previous state of â€?unity'. Because the government banned the use of ethnic labels on national identity cards in 20035 and has often used laws criminalising â€?divisionism' to curtail public discusÂsions of ethnicity, the groups involved in this process are never described as Tutsi or Hutu but rather as â€?victims... and suspects'[699] or â€?survivors and perpetrators'.[700]Echoing the view that unity can be regained in Rwanda, the governÂment interprets the degree of reconciliation necessary after the genoÂcide in retrospective terms, emphasising the need to restore a lost sense of social cohesion.
According to this view, Rwandan history comprises identifiable periods when different groups in society formed a unified, national whole which provides a template for how these groups should live together today. The government claims that social harmony is a dynamic innate in Rwandan society that can be rediscovered in the curÂrent context by instituting practices, such as those embodied in gacaca, that reinforce or â€?strengthen. unity'.[701] Implicit in the government's perÂspective is a belief that certain modes of public participation - expressed in its regular linkage of â€?collaboration' and â€?reconciliation' - are necesÂsary if groups in conflict wish to relearn how to coexist.Regarding the official interpretation of the types of methods for achieving reconciliation through gacaca, communal action, such as public participation in gacaca, is the key to reinforcing unity or achievÂing reconciliation; two concepts that, despite their apparent separation in the title of the NURC, are largely synonymous in the government's discourse. While reconciliation is generally interpreted as an outcome of gacaca, the government also emphasises the extent to which the processes of gacaca are reconciliatory, seeking a consistency of philosoÂphy in gacaca's methods and outcomes. The government argues that gacaca's processes are collaborative: the population, rather than state or community leaders, constitutes the main agent, and communal dialogue is the primary mode of deliberation.[702] In short, the government argues that popular participation and a greater sense of togetherness during the process of gacaca will produce a greater sense of togetherness, or reconÂciliation in the group-to-group sense, outside of gacaca.
In the official discourse, this connection between reconciliatory procÂesses within and beyond gacaca is relatively straightforward, with the former leading naturally to the latter. The government does not explain whether other mediating processes or institutions are necessary to achieve this translation of localised to wider reconciliatory outcomes.
Gacaca is thus seen as a test run of reconciliation, a chance for different groups in the community to experience in a closed setting how they may interact more harmoniously in daily life. According to Augustin Nkusi, former chief adviser to the Gacaca Commission and current spokesperÂson of the Office of the Prosecutor General,Gacaca contributes to reconciliation in a very general way but very quickly... It gets the community to say who is responsible for commitÂting crimes and it gets those who are guilty to tell the people what they did and to explain their actions. Because people talk together so much at gacaca, it will not take us many years to experience reconciliation in Rwanda.[703]
Nkusi's view assumes that reconciliation is a short-term process, funcÂtioning as a reminder of the unity that he argues characterised Rwandan society before it was undermined by external political forces.
Recently, some state officials have spoken more cautiously about gacaca's capacity to facilitate reconciliation, reflecting practical chalÂlenges observed in gacaca's daily operation. â€?Gacaca has contribÂuted greatly to justice but reconciliation to a much lesser extent', said Ndangiza in 2008.
Perhaps there will be reconciliation after gacaca. Probably there will be more reconciliation when the perpetrators return home from TIG. Gacaca helps start to rebuild trust, beginning a process of reconciliÂation. The government has also been organising reconciliation associÂations between perpetrators and victims, for example income-generating activities that are important for trust-building between these groups and their families. You have to remember that we also need to achieve reconciliation between the confessors and their own families. Many of these perpetrators have been rejected by their own families and many of them now say that the victims are their best friends. We have a very comÂplicated situation in this country.11
Here Ndangiza emphasises the role of gacaca in �beginning a process of reconciliation'; a more cautious assessment than Nkusi's bold statement above regarding gacaca's rapid contribution to reconciliation.