Prometheus 6

PAMBAZUKA NEWS 150: SPECIAL ISSUE ON RWANDA
A Weekly Electronic Newsletter For Social Justice In Africa
To view online, go to http://www.pambazuka.org/

1. Highlights from this issue

APPROACHING THE HEART OF A RAGING FIRE
Firoze Manji, Fahamu
This 150th issue of Pambazuka News is dedicated to the international mobilisation on Remembering Rwanda. This marks the 10th anniversary of a human catastrophe of gigantic proportions that led to the massacre of nearly a million people in Rwanda in the space of a few months. It was an event that was made all the more shameful for the criminal negligence of the international community, in Africa and beyond, to intervene - despite their full knowledge of what was happening. 1994 marked a tragedy that unfolded in Rwanda whose repercussions continue to be felt throughout the Great Lakes Region.

The focus on Rwanda is important not only as an act of solidarity with the survivors of the genocide. It should also be a reminder of the unfolding tragedy in the Great Lakes, particularly in the DRC, when many millions more have been and are being massacred.

Rwanda has been, as Mahmood Mamdani says in 'When Victims Become Killers', the "epicentre of the wider crisis in the African Great Lakes. Tied together by the thread of a common colonial legacy - one that politicized indigeneity as a basis for rights - the region has little choice but to address the Rwandan dilemma, if only to address its own dilemma. ... [This] will require a regional approach through a regional agenda that approaches the centre as firefighters would approach the heart of a raging fire, from outside in."

With the recent establishment of the Pan African Parliament there exists the potential mechanism for fighting the raging fires that consume both DRC and Burundi. But will there be a sufficient political will to engage?

This issue of Pambazuka News takes a different format from usual. We have a series of editorials from a number of international experts and activists, and provide resource materials for those wishing to learn more about Rwanda and what is being done for the anniversary of the genocide being commemorated this month.
EDITORIAL CONTENTS LIST
1. WHY WE MUST NEVER FORGET THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE

Why should the world bother to remember the Rwandan genocide? Isn't it something we should rather seek to forget? GERALD CAPLAN outlines the powerful case for why the genocide should not be forgotten at any cost, looking at the collective responsibility of humanity and the complicity of the West in turning a blind eye to the 100 days of massacre that took place in 1994.

2. TOWARDS JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION IN RWANDA: TAKING STOCK

"How can I forgive, when my livelihood was destroyed and I cannot even pay for the schooling of my children," asks a widowed Rwandan woman taking part in a reconciliation workshop. EUGENIA ZORBAS looks at the progress towards
reconciliation in Rwanda, examining the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, gacaca courts, issues of collective memory and the dangers of victor's justice.

3. SAFE SANCTUARY?: THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN GENOCIDE

Traditionally seen as places of sanctuary during times of turmoil, churches became the scene of some of the most haunting massacres of the Rwandan genocide. CAMILLE KARANGWA charts the complicity of the church in the time period up to and including the 100 days of killings in 1994 and concludes that it would be foolish not to acknowledge serious failings.

4. CHILDREN OF RWANDA: THE LEGACY OF GENOCIDE, THE FUTURE OF RWANDA

In the language and logic of genocide, exterminating the "big rats" also meant exterminating the "little rats". SARA RAKITA examines the legacy of the genocide for Rwanda's children and concludes that more can and must be done to help them.

5. A SEAT IN THE GRASS

LULEKA MANGQUKU, a South African woman, catches a bus through Rwanda, attends a gacaca trial and contemplates the aftermath of genocide. Drawing parallels with South Africa's 10 years of democracy celebrations, she asks the question: "Will confessions and finger-pointing in open-air tribunals enable Rwandans, the most Roman Catholic of Africans, to forgive 'until seventy times seven?'"

6. WHY? HOW? SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS IN THE DIASPORA

Watching the genocide from their TV sets in the West, members of the African Diaspora demanded answers to the why and the how of what was taking place. But there can be no answers to this unspeakable horror, says VINCENT GASANA, and the best that can be done is to understand the circumstances surrounding the genocide.

7. WHY DOES GENOCIDE 'HAPPEN'?

The immediate terror of genocide gives the impression that it is an inexplicable mass crime of passion sparked by a single event, such as the shooting down of the plane that killed the Rwandan head of state in 1994. Nothing could be further from the truth, states ROTIMI SANKORE. Genocide has clear economic, social and political indicators that are identifiable long before the killing starts. The challenge is therefore to rid the world of the injustices on which genocide is built.

8. MIRRORING RWANDA'S CHALLENGES: THE REFUGEE STORY

Millions of people scattered across the African continent and the world in the aftermath of the genocide. Meeting the needs of those returning has been a huge challenge that is not yet resolved. SARAH ERLICHMAN explains how the welfare of Rwanda's refugees is integrally linked to the political and social-economic future of the country.

9. FIVE DECADES OF FLEEING AND RETURNING PEOPLE

A decade after the genocide, the problem of Rwanda's refugees persists. But while refugees may remain reluctant to return home because of apprehension about unity and reconciliation, economic problems and scarce land, the construction of a healthy society in the country of a thousand hills will depend on a resolution of the refugee crisis, writes VOLKER SCHIMMEL.

10. NEUTRALISING THE VOICES OF HATE: BROADCASTING AND GENOCIDE

Silencing the voices of hate does not involve draconian hate speech laws or international military action. Rather, argues RICHARD CARVER, the Rwandan experience shows that the solution to hate speech is to entrench freedom of expression.

11. TEN LESSONS TO PREVENT GENOCIDE

In the ten years since the Rwandan genocide leaders of national governments and international institutions have acknowledged the shame of having failed to stop the slaughter of the Tutsi population. At the 2004 Stockholm International Forum, "Preventing Genocide: Threats and Responsibilities," many renewed their commitment to halting any future genocide. Honouring that pledge will require not just greater political will than seen in the past but also developing a strategy built on the lessons of 1994. ALISON DES FORGES provides ten lessons for preventing genocide.