Rwanda Genocide:
Honoring the Dead Without Honoring the Lies
On
April 7 the United Nations began its annual commemoration of the
anniversary of what we know as the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, when as many as one
million Rwandans were slaughtered in 100 days.
The
ceremonies raise several questions for all those who contest the received
history of the Rwanda Genocide: How to honor Rwanda’s dead without honoring the
lies?
And,
how to honor six million more Congolese dead, but not commemorated, in the
ongoing aftermath of the Rwanda Genocide when Rwanda’s war crossed its western
border into neighboring D.R. Congo?
Though both tell the received
history of the Rwanda Genocide; the BBC and Wikipedia mark its outset not on April 7th, as the
UK, UN, and Rwandan officialdom do, but on April 6th, when, in 1994, the
assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamiratriggered
the ensuing panic and violence that grew into the horror of the next 100 days
and beyond. The two presidents were flying home from a conference between east
and central African leaders in Tanzania, held to discuss ways to end violence
between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis from Burundi and Rwanda, when their plane was
shot out of the sky over Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.
How Rwanda Judged Its Genocide - Africa Research Institute
Since 2001, the gacaca community courts have been the
centrepiece of Rwanda’s justice and reconciliation process.
Nearly every adult Rwandan has participated in the trials,
but
lawyers are banned from any official involvement. Human
rights organisations fiercely opposed the use of gacaca for
trying genocide cases, on the grounds that it fell short of
international legal standards of fairness. Much criticism
reflects legal rigidity towards the unprecedented challenges
confronting post-genocide Rwanda – and a limited
understanding of the aims of the community courts. Gacaca
was inevitably imperfect, but also highly ambitious and
innovative. While the full impact of the process will not be
apparent for many years, gacaca has delivered benefits to
Rwandans in the spheres of justice, truth and democratic
participation. Other societies confronting the aftermath of
mass conflict could learn much from Rwanda’s approach to
local justice.
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