REMEMBERING RWANDA
Rachel Lob-Levyt

Cherwell Online

May 28 2009

Photo: CherwellAt least 250,000 victims of the Rwandan Genocide are
buried within the grounds of the Kigali Memorial Centre. Set amongst
well-kept gardens, the complex acts as both memorial and museum. Every
year Rwandans come to visit the mass graves at the site to remember
and grieve their friends and relatives who were lost during the
1994 Genocide. And throughout the year tourists’ first port of call
will be the museum whose illuminating layout provides information
on the causes of the genocide, including the culpable role of the
international community. The last room before you leave the museum
contains individual photographs of just a few of the children who were
murdered during the Genocide. Their ages range between three and twelve
years old. Underneath their photographs are plaques detailing their
names and information about them: their favourite foods, hobbies and
what they wanted to be when they grew up. This simple exhibition brings
home the awful tragedy of a lost generation with overwhelming power.

On the 6th of April 1994 the plane of the Rwandan President–Juvénal
Habyarimana–was shot down. Only a few days later a wave of coordinated
killing swept across Rwanda lasting three months and leaving nearly
one million people dead.

For a visitor, it is difficult to comprehend how Rwanda has been
able to move on since 1994. A large portion of blame lies with the
French, who openly supported the racist Habyariman regime, even going
so far as to provide training and arms to the militia. ‘Operation
Amaryllis’ which commenced on the 8th of April 1994 evacuated those
Westerners still remaining in Rwanda but not those threatened by the
genocidaires. It has been postulated that had the French troops that
facilitated the evacuation remained in Rwanda, the Genocide could
have been prevented.

The more general responsibility of the international community
lies in its detached attitude towards the realities of the Rwandan
Genocide. While the majority of the member states (most significantly
the US) were reluctant to donate troops to the UN peacekeeping mission
(UNAMIR), the UN itself was caught up in its own bureaucracy. On
the 11th of January 1994, Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire, the
Canadian head of UNAMIR sent a fax to Major General Maurice Baril and
Kofi Annan (at the time, Under Secretary General for Peace Keeping
Operations). This fax re-laid information obtained from an informant
within the Hutu militia known only as ‘Jean-Pierre’. Dallaire told
Baril and Annan of his knowledge of the existence of Hutu militia arms
caches, a list of the names and addresses of Tutsis to be murdered
including several Tutsi politicians, and of a plot to assassinate ten
Belgium soldiers with the aim of prompting a withdrawal of Belgium
peace-keeping troops from Rwanda. On the 7th of April, the day
after the President’s plane was shot down, ten Belgian soldiers were
captured, tortured and killed by the Presidential Guard. As predicted,
the Belgians withdrew their troops and the UN Security Council voted
to reduce UNAMIR to a token presence. No significant opposition to
the imminent slaughter remained.

One of the messages that resounds, not only in the Memorial
Centre but throughout Rwanda, by way of road-side billboards and
banners hanging above the entrances to mass graves, is the mantra:
‘Reconciliation’. After the horrors of the Genocide and the inevitable
anger at the abandonment by the international community, it is
difficult to see how this message could be realised. However, the
way in which Rwandans have dealt the injustices of the Genocide is
remarkable. In order to cope with the many thousands of genocidaires
still living in Rwanda, the government has turned to the traditional
‘Gacaca’ system–meaning ‘Justice on the Grass’. These courts combine
traditional local justice with modern jurisprudence, with an emphasis
on reconciliation. The perpetrators of the Genocide stand trial before
their community; those who admit to their crimes and show remorse are
sentenced to continual community service but are allowed to return home
in the evening; those who do not are sentenced to community service but
spend their nights in prison. Throughout the country it is a common
sight to see these convicted men and women working in the fields or
on the roads, the former in dark blue overalls, the latter in pink.

2009 marks the fifteen-year anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, and
when travelling through this beautiful country it is astonishing to
see how much the country has advanced, socially and economically,
despite it’s past horrors and their continued effect. Along side
the well terraced road leading into the north of the country I saw
men and women digging long trenches, mostly by hand. I was told that
they were laying trenches for Internet fibre-optic cables that would
stretch across the country.

The government is also implementing a program which will eventually
see every school child with his or her own computer. Although limited
monetary resources mean that teachers are not yet fully trained on
how to instruct children in using the computers, President Kalama
was told on a recent visit to a school implementing the program,
that in fact the children’s computer skills are leaps ahead those
of their teachers. Walking through the capital, Kigali, you cannot
turn a corner without seeing evidence of new building work, a sure
sign of a growing metropolis. Much of this work – government building,
maintenance of public spaces and roads, is contributed to by compulsory
community service. Every second Saturday morning of each month, all
members of Rwandan society gather to help rebuild and advance their
country. Purportedly, even the President joins in this work. While
it is clear that in Rwanda the Genocide will never be forgotten,
the emphasis now seems to be on building a country whose significance
extends far beyond the tragedy of 1994.

Throughout the country signs are hung with an image of two clasping
hands beneath the words ‘Genocide Never Again’. One wing of the
Kigali Memorial Museum explores the abominations of other Genocides
perpetrated around the world: the Holocaust, the rule of the Khmer
Rouge in Cambodia and the Armenian Genocide amongst others. This sends
the message that what happened in Rwanda does not concern Rwandans
alone, but is an example of an enduring and horrific fault in human
society. However the role of the international community is essential
in the prevention of such terrible slaughter. Rwanda seems to be taking
this message seriously, and have contributed one of the largest numbers
of troops to the Darfur peacekeeping mission. It remains to be seen
whether the rest of the world will learn from their past mistakes as
effectively and realise the full impact of their responsibility.