Second - class justice system
(The Guardian Weekly)

In April 1994 the genocide began in Rwanda. Hundreds of thousands of people from the Tutsi tribe were murdered by soldiers from the Hutu tribe. People say that Theoneste Bagosora, an army colonel, was the man who organized the murders. Now he is on trial at the International Tribunal for Rwanda, a court which is located at Arusha in Tanzania. Bagosora was arrested for his crimes six years ago. Since then, he has been in prison waiting for his trial.
More than sixty other people are also in prison waiting for their trials. They include many of the politicians who allowed the murders to happen. One of them is the former Prime Minister of Rwanda, Jean Kambanda. Progress with the trials is very slow.
It is interesting to compare the Rwanda Tribunal with the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former President od Yugoslavia. This trial is taking place at the International Court in The Hague. The Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, is responsible for both these courts. Milosevic was arrested last year in Yugoslavia and brought to The Hague. His trial began a few months later. Progress has been vera fast with this trial. A lot of money has been spent on the Milosevic trial but not much has been spent on the trials in Rwanda.
There are many other reasons why the Rwanda tribunal is working so slowly. Apart from the question of money, there has been bad management, corruption, problems of internal politics and racial tension between Western prosecutors and African tribunal managers. The survivors of the genocide and other citizens of Rwanda do not have a lot of confidence in the tribunal. They do not believe that justice will be done. They are also angry that Bagosora, Kambanda and the other politicians accused of genocide willonly be sentenced to life in prison if they are found quilty by the tribunal. The soldiers who followed the orders of the politicians and murdered thousands of people could face the death penalty in ordinary courts in Rwanda. So people believe that the politicians are receiving special treatment.
However, the Rwanda tribunal has had two important successes. It is the first international tribunal in history to convict anyone of genocide, and it also declared for the first time in legal history that rape can be an act of genocide.

Vocabulary

legal cases(n.)	právní případy
dishonest	nečestný
particular rase	jedné rasy
guilty	vinný
in custody	ve vazbě
innocent	nevinný
lawyer(n)	právník, advokát
according to (v.)	dle (někoho)
confidence (n)	důvěra
carry out (v.)	provést, vykonat, uskutečnit
success(n)	úspěch
tribe (n)	kmen,
colonel(n)	plukovník
crime (n)	zločin
prime ministerl(n)	ministerský předseda, premiér
to compare (v.)	porovnat, srovnat
racial tension	rasový tlak
citizen (n)	obyvatel, občan
accused of	obviněný z
death penalty (n)	trest smrti
to rape (v.)	znásilnit
genocide (n)	genocida
arrested	zajištěný, zatknutý
tribunal (n)	soudní dvůr, tribunál
trial	soudní řízení, stání, proces
corruption (n)	korupce, podplácení
prosecutor (n)	žalobce, prokurátor
justice (n)	spravedlnost
accused	obviněný, obžalovaný