Memory and justice
Testifying and Judging
To fill a glaring lack of human and material resources, the new government begins the construction of a new judicial system capable of managing an exponential number of arrests that feed an unequaled stream of prisoners piling up in detention centers. The material impossibility of trying individually such a large number of suspects led the Rwandan leaders to establish, starting in 2001, people’s courts of traditional inspiration, the
In 10 years, these local courts run by elected judges in their communities have heard nearly 2 million cases and sentenced 800,000 people for their direct participation in killings and rapes.
At the international level, the United Nations is endeavouring to describe the nature of the massacres by establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), whose headquarters are located in Arusha, Tanzania. During the various trials conducted by the ICTR, priority is given to the instigators of the genocide from both political and military, religious and media spheres.
A large number of criminals having fled abroad at the time of the Hutu debacle, the mechanism of "universal jurisdiction" also leads a number of states, notably in Europe, to try alleged criminals.
