VZCZCXYZ0010
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLGB #1113/01 3441458
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 101458Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4962
INFO RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 0174
RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 0204
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 1020
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1780
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0339
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0146
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 1090
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0383

UNCLAS KIGALI 001113 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV RW
SUBJECT: "BETTER THAN PRISON" - RWANDA'S POST-GENOCIDE 
COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAM 
 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Summary: Evariste Bizimana, Executive Secretary for 
the Rwandan Travaux d'Interet General (TIG) National 
Committee, discussed the state of the community service 
program with emboffs on December 4.  Approximately 45,000 
people - referred to as "TIGists" - have been registered by 
the TIG National Committee and are either working as day 
laborers, as residents of one of 26 TIG camps, or awaiting 
TIG assignment.  100,000 persons may be participating in TIG 
by early next year.  TIG projects are determined by districts 
and focus on environmental and agricultural development.  A 
tour of Masoro TIG camp outside central Kigali revealed a 
minimum security work camp alternative to Rwanda's 
dilapidated prisons (whose populations are dropping 
steadily).  Criticism has grown over the slow start of the 
program and the alleged poor work habits of the TIGists, but 
the real work of the TIG program is to transform those 
convicted of genocide crimes from inactive prison populations 
to community service participants.  End summary. 
 
2.(U) Bizimana explained to emboffs during their meeting on 
December 4 that so-called "TIGists" have two options.  The 
first option is as a camp resident.  Those who perform TIG as 
camp residents, housed in one of Rwanda's 26 camps, have 
their TIG sentences reduced by half.  They are able to leave 
on weekends and can obtain permission to leave for short 
periods of time for other reasons.  The other option is 
referred to as "in proximity."  Individuals doing TIG "in 
proximity" live at home, serve their full TIG sentences, and 
report to the camp for work on weekdays, earning credit 
against their sentences for each day of work actually 
performed.  Bizimana reported that, of the approximately 
45,000 people currently registered with the TIG National 
Committee, 9,000 are in 26 camps (whose populations range 
between 300 and 1000 people), 23,000 are doing TIG "in 
proximity," and the rest await assignment.  He estimated the 
program may have 60,000 TIGists by the end of the year, and 
perhaps 100,000 by early next year.  (Note: Those who confess 
to gacaca offenses - the vast majority of cases - spend half 
of their sentence in TIG, the rest split between prison time 
and suspended sentences.  End note). 
 
¶3. (U) Bizimana said TIGists work eight hours a day, and 
receive reconciliation training in cooperation with the 
National Unity and Reconciliation Commission.  Those in the 
camps spend their evenings at rest or engaged in "leisure 
activities."  The focus of TIG work, according to Bizimana, 
are district-level projects that provide environmental 
protection or increase agricultural production, such as 
terracing of fields.  He said coffee and macadamia nuts are 
among the crops planted by TIGists, with sale proceeds 
returned to the program.  Each district in which a TIG camp 
is located determines projects for TIGists to undertake for 
the benefit of the district, with the TIG office contracting 
out the TIGists' labor.  TIGists living "in proximity" to the 
camps join in the district projects.  Eventually, Bizimana 
stated, there will be 60 TIG camps, two in each of Rwanda's 
30 districts.  Bizimana reported that private enterprises may 
also enter into memoranda of understanding with the TIG 
National Committee for contract labor.  Private projects ran 
a greater risk of corruption, Bizimana acknowledged, as less 
monitoring would occur than in public projects, and TIGists 
could attempt to thwart daily performance monitoring through 
bribery or substitution of personnel. 
 
¶4. (U) During the meeting, Bizimana spontaneously invited 
emboffs to the Masoro TIG camp, which was established in 
October in Gasabo District and is located a few kilometers 
outside central Kigali.  About 1,000 individuals are serving 
TIG sentence at Masoro, said Bizimana.  After showing emboffs 
several hundred TIGists working at terracing on a hillside 
below the camp, he led a tour of the facility, which included 
permanent structures -- staff offices, a large meeting room, 
an infirmary, a kitchen, showers and latrines -- and several 
dozen tarp-covered shelters for residents, as well as gardens 
and a soccer pitch.  Facilities were clean and living spaces 
were relatively spacious and tidy.  About two dozen women had 
their own facilities located across the camp from the men's 
tents.  Nearly all camp inhabitants were absent on work 
assignments, but emboffs spoke with camp officials and with 
several TIGists, including one who had spent eight years in 
prison on genocide charges before coming to the Masoro camp. 
In the presence of Bizimana, the TIGist asserted that living 
conditions and food were "much better at the camp" than in 
 
prison, and that residents had "greater freedom." 
 
¶5. (SBU) Bizimana was recently called to the Senate to answer 
questions on the productivity of the TIGists -- there has 
been growing criticism of the slow pace of camp construction 
and the alleged poor work habits of TIG participants.  A 
recent editorial cartoon in the government-affiliated New 
Times showed several TIGists leaning on shovels, chatting up 
young women, and sitting in the shade smoking cigarettes. 
However, Bizimana asserted that TIGists were being actively 
sought by many government agencies with public work projects 
to construct. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: Although still overcrowded, Rwanda's prison 
population is dropping steadily as tens of thousands of 
Rwandans are sent home to serve their suspended sentences and 
community service first (with prison time an increasingly 
remote possibility, according to some observers).  TIG now 
takes center stage as the focus of Rwanda's search for 
compensation and accountability for the 1994 genocide. 
Whatever the productivity of the TIGist labor force, the real 
goal of the TIG program will be to transform those convicted 
of genocide crimes from inactive prison populations to work 
camp and home-based participants in community service 
activities.  End comment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ARIETTI