Justice For Rwanda: Too Little, Too Late?

ARUSHA, Tanzania: One down. The U.N. tribunal investigating the genocide of 500,000 Rwandans in 1994 has scored its first conviction -- a former Rwandan mayor named Jean-Paul Akayesu. He has not yet been sentenced. But TIME's Marguerite Michaels wonders whether the U.N.'s version of justice -- late, slow and with no death penalty -- has any chance of ending the cycle of ethnic killing that continues in Congo to this day.

"It's one small step for man, but let's see how large a step it is for mankind," she says. "They can't execute anyone. That makes the chances pretty slim that this will be satisfying to anyone involved in the killing going on now." One thing that could help would be some attention from the outside world. "No one did anything in 1994, and no one did anything in 1996" when the retributions started, says Michaels. "But if this court becomes a credible standard-bearer for justice in the region, it could have an effect."