Rwanda: Gacaca trials put to the test

The first trials before the gacaca courts of justice finally opened in Rwanda on 10 March. More than three years after their official launch, the courts, made up of locally-elected judges from a district or hill, read out their first verdicts against people suspected of participating in the genocide. The most notable fact was the summoning of several hundred local administrative leaders before the courts, reports the International Justice Tribune, a newsletter on international criminal justice.