ABSTRACT
Kristen, an educated and skilled woman, described her genocide crimes as an unfortunate incident born of bad timing, and her sentence as bias against her unusual status as an educated woman. The Gacaca courts consciously combined the proceedings of a traditional courtroom, the truth and reconciliation method adopted by South Africa, and customary Rwandan procedures of community-based conflict resolution and reconciliation. The crimes perpetrated by women during the genocide fall into two forms: acts of direct violence and acts of indirect violence. In general, the women described their participation in the genocide, if they admitted it at all, as voluntary. Kristen initially implied that her participation in the mob drowning of a man was a result of coercion, she later changed her account, according herself greater agency. Denial by women perpetrators is an acknowledged phenomenon. When asked about women perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda, one man perpetrator noted that women "are more reluctant to admit their crimes.
