Highlights: Rwanda: rebuilding society, 30 years after the genocide. Commemorations of thirty years of the Tutsi genocide begin on April 7 in Rwanda. Three decades after the horror, the invisible wounds remain present. Some have even been transmitted to the next generation. Between speech and justice, care and artistic creation, RFI was in a special edition this Sunday to discuss the paths taken by Rwandans to rebuild society. A special edition to listen to again in this article.

Commemorations of thirty years of the Tutsi genocide begin on April 7 in Rwanda. Three decades after the horror, the invisible wounds remain present. Some have even been transmitted…

Special edition

Rwanda: rebuilding society, 30 years after the genocide

Commemorations of thirty years of the Tutsi genocide begin on April 7 in Rwanda. Three decades after the horror, the invisible wounds remain present. Some have even been passed down to the next generation. Between speech and justice, care and artistic creation, RFI was in a special edition this Sunday to discuss the paths taken by Rwandans to rebuild society. A special edition to listen to again in this article.

Listen - 1:03:03

A visitor looks at portraits of victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, April 29, 2018. © AFP / YASUYOSHI CHIBA

By: RFI Follow

Mushubati, on the heights of Lake Kivu. Léoncie is a 65-year-old survivor. She wonders about the silence. His silence. The one she kept with her children and grandchildren for a long time. “

What pushed us not to tell our story to our children was because we were hurt by the trauma of the genocide. But I realized that we, the older ones, have failed with our children, with our grandchildren, we have failed.

Léoncie is one of the women, young, survivors or not, who pass through Émilienne Mukansoro's workshop room, located downstairs from her family home. The psychotherapist supports numerous groups, particularly on questions of memory of the genocide and transmission between generations.

This transmission remains difficult for the generations who experienced the massacres: many choose to remain silent to protect the youngest from the truth. “

We chose to remain silent,”

says Émilienne Mukansoro, “

believing that it is a way of protecting children, young people… but silence does not prevent transmission. Silence does not prevent young people from absorbing things.

» The truth, according to the psychotherapist, must be told: “

Young people need to ask questions of their elders. And elders have a duty to respond, not to leave them in something abstract. And I tell myself that this is where young people will draw the strength to continue their lives.

These young people born after the genocide now represent nearly 65% of the population. They sometimes break the silence and seek to know their past, listening to conversations behind doors and windows, to gather scraps of truth about their family's history.

Heal invisible wounds

Mourning, thirty years later, sometimes remains complex. Because the bodies of loved ones have not always been found. The killers didn't always say where they left them. At 84, Azela Nyirangirumwami now lives in the village of Otava, in the district of Huye, in one of the four houses built by the government to accommodate elderly survivors who have lost their entire family. Ignorance of where loved ones died remains omnipresent. “

I was not able to bury mine,”

she confides. “

Others were able to bury their loved ones and have wakes, but not me.

Members of my family were thrown into rivers, I was told that my husband was killed in Kibuye, my son in Kibungo. I always think about it, it's painful, but everything has an end.

Read alsoRwanda: from the Revolution to the beginnings of the Tutsi genocide

Thirty years after the genocide, the wounds of Rwandan society have not yet healed. In Kigali, the Reverend Antoine Rutayisire, retired pastor of the Anglican Church, testifies to this. He himself is a survivor.

“Rwanda gives the appearance of recovery. There is visible healing. Externally, the country was rebuilt very quickly, but the hearts take longer. It takes time to rebuild trust between people who yesterday were murderers, others were victims, it will take time, perhaps two or three generations. There are still hidden wounds.

Frank Kayitare, representative of the NGO Interpeace in Rwanda, shares his analysis: thirty years, on the scale of hearts and mental health, is not a lot. “

If you look at how the genocide was committed...neighbors who killed their neighbors, teachers who killed their students, doctors who killed their patients, there were even intra-family murders. So healing from this type of crime is not something that can be done quickly.

Living together again

What is the path to treating these wounds? “

If it is a genocide perpetrator or his family

,” explains Frank Kayitare, “

we must first treat, externalize the shame, the fear, the guilt. So that they can open up to survivors.

The survivors have to face the attackers, talk about what they feel. Some of them still need answers because they don't know where their loved ones were buried. They must therefore face the executioners and ask them difficult questions.

Marie Claire Uwamahoro is the representative of the Ibuka association in the Tumba area, where

Doctor Sosthène Munyemana

practiced . The gynecologist was sentenced to 24 years in prison in France for his involvement in the genocide. Justice explains Ms. Uwamahoro, is essential for the reconstruction of the victims and the country: “

We followed the trial but from afar. His sentence does not reflect the crimes he committed. But the fact that he was found guilty made us happy.

“

Personally, I believe he should have received a life sentence for what he did to us.

Waiting so long for his arrest,

continues Ibuka's representative,

was a form of torture for us. Knowing that he was able to live freely all these years is torture. But ultimately he was arrested and tried, so I'm happy about that.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was unique in that it was a local genocide. In fact, we must continue to live in the villages, on the hills, next to each other, when the convicted genocidaires leave prison and return to their communities. How to live together? How can we help each other and make this situation bearable? NGOs like Interpeace or the AMI association (Modest and Innocent Association) organize forms of sociotherapy and discussion groups in stages, so that victims, executioners and families engage in dialogue.

Listen again to our special edition presented by

Julien Coquelle-Roëhm

, with

Assumpta Mugiraneza

, co-founder and director of the Iriba center,

Eugène Rutembesa

, clinical and academic psychologist,

Jean Hatzfeld

, journalist and writer,

Paul Simon Handy

, director of the Africa regional office from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and

Christophe Boisbouvier,

journalist in the Africa department at RFI.

19:27

Special edition - Commemoration of 30 years of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda 8:10 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.

25:59

Special edition - Commemoration of 30 years of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda 8:30 a.m. - 9 a.m.

18:11

Special edition - Commemoration of 30 years of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda 9:10 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

Rwanda: rebuilding society, 30 years after the genocide

Rwanda: rebuilding society, 30 years after the genocide

Heal invisible wounds

Living together again

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