Mar 30, 02:20 PM
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Here in Arusha, at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, those wishing to observe proceedings surrender photo ID in a small white trailer next to the (slightly shabby) conference center that houses the tribunal and are ushered through a metal detector to wander around to courtrooms wherein the leaders and masterminds of the murder of 800,000 Rwandans have been tried slowly but steadily over most of the last decade.
Many of those who sit behind the glass in the gallery of the courtoom, listening through headphones that translate testimony and questioning into and out of French, Kinyarwanda, and English, are dusty travellers, Lonely Planet guidebook tucked into backpack checked at the door to the courtroom.
One could be cynical about turning a matter of such importance into a tourist destination, (and I have to say that some of these people might at least think to tuck in their shirts) but most of those that I see appear to be earnest young people who care about a terrible tragedy and are interested to observe an historical attempt to treat crimes against humanity as all of humanity’s concern.
In my opinion, the mere act of showing up to actually see what is happening here in Arusha is better than most of the world, and the global media that purports to inform it, has done. One rarely hears about these proceedings in our newspapers or on our television shows, except when there is a major decision or a scandal, and then most of what one hears is that the trials are proceeding far too slowly. There have been only 26 cases completed since the court opened its doors in September 1996 (all but three convictions.)
This is certainly a problem, but it is also one that the current tribunal leaders have done a good deal to rectify. The court staff members, attorneys, and journalists whom I’ve managed to corner as I’ve spent the last four days at the tribunal have all told me that changes including bringing in more judges and another chamber and being more strict with defense’s attempts to file delaying motions have sped things up. A correspondent for the news agency Hirondelle pointed out to me that several recent trials have been completed in less than a year.
The tribunal is open to criticism, as is any international body (or any human institution at all, for that matter). I came in with some knowledge of the court and its work, but largely undecided about this seemingly cumbersome and mysterious institution in this smallish town known to most Westerners, if at all, as the place where they began their safari. Now, l see here reason for hope. I think that this is possible, despite the problems, if one considers the ICTR as a step along the way to a time when the world is governed more perfectly by the rule of law. What we should learn from this tribunal’s missteps are ways to act, in future, more quickly and effectively in the interest of human rights, not that such action is impossible. That much we owe to the victims of genocide.