Gacaca: 2000 disappear

SOUTHERN PROVINCE  HUYE—Authorities from Huye district have said that in the past five years over 2,000 people wanted by Gacaca courts have disappeared.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

SOUTHERN PROVINCE 

HUYE—Authorities from Huye district have said that in the past five years over 2,000 people wanted by Gacaca courts have disappeared.

The revelation was made during the Gacaca general meeting that brought together all Inyangamugayo (people of integrity) from fourteen sectors and local leaders of the district.

Presenting a paper on the state of Gacaca in the district, Sector Executives indicated that a number of Genocide suspects supposed to appear before Gacaca tribunals can not be traced.

Inyagamugayo were urged to trace the wanted people before the end November.

The National Executive Secretary for Gacaca Jurisdiction, Domitilla Mukantaganzwa who chaired the meeting said that those who disappeared should be traced and face justice.

"In the meantime before you find those people, you have to pin up a list of their names as the usual trial proceedings continue,” said Mukantaganzwa.

She also said that Gacaca in Huye district has recorded tremendous success in trying majority of Genocide cases and that Gacaca courts in the district are likely to close by the end of November this year.

However, Mukantaganzwa castigated some courts in the districts of Huye, Muhanga and Kamonyi that deliberately delayed trials.

She also said that courts that delay trials affect the success of other courts in the district.

Speaking about the backlog of cases in the third category, Mukantaganzwa informed Gacaca court heads that families of people who committed crimes in the third category have the obligation to pay what was destroyed.

"We have cases of people who stole or destroyed property but died before paying back.

Families of the deceased who have the capacity to pay back what was taken or destroyed should be made to pay,” said Mukantaganzwa.

Currently the Southern Province has the biggest number of Genocide cases many of those not yet tried.

Ends