Gacaca judges co-ops to receive Rwf 1bn boost

The National Gacaca Board is set to disburse Rwf1.3billion this month to support cooperatives that were recently formed by Gacaca judges. The support is in recognition of the judges’ services to the country. Domitilla Mukantaganzwa, the Executive Secretary of the semi-traditional courts set up to help speed up trials of 1994 Genocide suspects, told The New Times that the board had already received all the legal papers governing the judges’ cooperatives and it was ready to make the cash disbursements. “The objective is to help them develop themselves as persons of integrity who rendered immeasurable service to the country,” she said in a telephone interview yesterday. An estimated 130,000 judges who were chosen from the society to conduct the trial proceedings, are still working under a deadline to complete work before the end of the year. “The government wants to keep in contact with them,” Mukantaganzwa revealed. “We will give Rwf 10,000 to each and every judge who did the work well to pay their contributions to cooperatives that will start different businesses depending on what is suitable in their regions,” she added. The money is a grant from the Netherlands and Belgium and it is now available on the board’s account. She said that the cooperatives were formed in each sector level of the country’s administrative entities and the members will continue to help in solving different matters in their respective areas of residence. While thousands of the tribunals’ judges have always worked without receiving salaries, many of them appreciate the government’s initiative to help them start a business to improve their livelihoods. “It is a good idea that they think about us though it is clear that the money provided remains little. I think we will use the package as a base to start up something,” said Eugène Mugemanshuro, the President of Gacaca Court A, Kanombe in Kicukiro District. Mugemanshuro and 143 other judges in the sector have formed a cooperative and they plan to build a multi-purpose complex worth more than Rwf 100 million so that they can make money from hosting conferences, a library, lodges and a bar. Ends