RWANDA IN BRIEF

RWANDA ELECTS JUDGES TO GACACA COURTS.

Elections of judges to " Gacaca" courts were held in Rwanda starting from the 4th and ended on 7th October.

In all, about 260.000 people were chosen to sit in those courts which find their origin in the traditional gatherings old wise people to resolve disputes in the communities.

The government has initiated the modern gacaca courts in order to speed up trials of over a hundred thousands inmates detained in various prisons in Rwanda on charges of genocide which claimed up to a million people during the spring of 1994.

The Rwandan authorities say the gacaca courts will start running early next year .

The judges-elect are not required to have legal training but it is understood that they will receive some basic training to help them understand the law on the gacaca system.

Some western countries including UK, USA and Holland have donated funds towards that training.

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A POWERFUL FILM ABOUT THE GENODICE IN RWANDA:

"100 DAYS"

Two young film makers a Briton and a Rwandan, have teamed up to produce a very powerful film about the Rwandan genocide which has been shown in Toronto- Canada and London-UK.

In what must the Rwandan response to Schindler's list, a film about the horrors of the Holocaust, Nick Hughes, the director, and Eric Kabera, the producer, depict in their moving film called - 100 days - the horror which befell Rwanda in 1994.

It was filmed in the southern province of Kibuye, a place of a stunning beauty.

The actors, mainly Rwandans, are mostly amateurs, with the exception of a few non Rwandan actors who play the UN and French soldiers as well as journalists and a western parish priest.

The film was first launched in the Toronto film festival in September 2001 and later screened at the Raindance Film Festival in the Metro cinema in Leicester Square in October.

It is expected the film will be on general release early 2002 when it is hoped the film will reach a wide Western audience.

The producers of a 100 days say the aim is to show the world what actually happened to the Rwandan people whose suffering sometimes is still remote to many people around the world.