0 about the author

Fine-tuning or disaster management:
 
The Rwandan Government has shown its openness to 
adjustment of the process over the course of time. Several changes have made the system 

---

79 
more effective and efficient. The gradual changes have altered the system by incorporating 
more restorative components-the reduction of sentence after a sincere confession and the 
prominent place of community service. All in all, however, the modifications have come about 
rather slowly and are relatively minor, as can be seen from table I comparing the 2004 and 
2007 laws. And what looks like fine-tuning from one angle seems to be disaster management 
from another (Waldorf, 2006). 
b. 
The court system is at once everything and nothing:
 
The changes and modifications have 
altered the Gacaca courts into a hybrid institution with elements of the original informal 
conflict resolution mechanism but now fully incorporated into the formal judicial system. 
This makes the court system innovative, with different traditions and objectives possibly 
reinforcing each other, but it also makes it fragile when the heterogeneous sources of 
inspiration and intended outcomes tend to be irreconcilable or might neutralize each other. 
The Gacaca courts are at one and the same time a centralized and a decentralized justice 
system: they embody the installation and completion of a process at the local level, while 
controlled and guided from above. It is also a formal and an informal way of doing justice. 
The courts are also a blend of retributive and restorative justice with 'confessions 
and 
accusations, plea-bargains 
and 
trials, forgiveness 
and 
punishment, community service 
und 
incarceration' (Waldorf 2006: 52-3). But, as is argued above, at their core lies retributive 
justice. They are, further, claimed to be home-grown, inspired by customary justice but in 
accordance with international human rights standards. Based on numerous observations of 
the practical functioning of the courts, we conclude that the Gacaca courts are a novelty, on 
the one hand, mimicking a traditional conflict resolution mechanism but with the reduced 
potential for reconciliation, while, on the other hand, they mimic the modern legal system, 
with a reduced guarantee of due process. 
c.