The executive secretary of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission Fidèle Ndayisaba says the recent discovery of mass graves in Kabuga in a way contributes to the reconciliation efforts in the country. In an interview with Sunday Times’ Mira Craig-Morse, Ndayisaba talked about the impediments in realising the full unity and reconciliation of Rwandans after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi; the continued importance of organizations like the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission and why the country should keep striving for unity and prosperity. Below are the excerpts: How well do you think the country is progressing along the post-genocide path towards restoration, healing and development? Every year there is positive change. This goes together with understanding the genocide itself and dealing with the wounds people have. It’s an emotional time. With time, we realize that people are becoming stronger: those were children in 1994-‘95 in the immediate aftermath of the genocide, they are in their twenties and thirties now, they have become stronger, they are mastering things, understanding what happened, helping each other. Looking at the state of the nation, confidently and with much pride, we record that Rwanda is a peaceful and reconciled nation.What you see is people living together, working together. To have that after what happened just 24 years ago, I think it’s remarkable. Mass graves were recently discovered in Kabuga, has this had any impact on the process of unity and reconciliation? First of all, I appreciate the people who have given the information necessary to discover those bodies. It’s important. You can only regret that it took so long. We need and we have to discover the remains of those people killed. It’s important and it’s a good contribution toward reconciliation because it helps not only survivors but people who knew those killed during the genocide – friends, neighbors, and relatives. The victims deserve to have a proper burial. For a human being, it is important. When you do not have a decent burial for someone you know or a relative, you have a wound which prevents reconciliation, so when [bodies are exhumed], it helps to connect. We wish for people to become courageous and give that information. We can’t say it’s bad to discover, no, because we need it. We only regret the time it takes. With time, we will keep encouraging people in healing, social healing, which happens through conversation in communities. This is one of the priorities during those conversations because the act of revealing the truth, the remorse, understanding each other and the suffering of oneanother, understanding the guilty conscience of the perpetrators –it’s heavy, it’s not an easy thing. There’s a need for mutual support.Through that,some will be courageous and reveal the locations of the bodies of those killed. We want to encourage friends and relatives to do the same, not only government authorities. If someone knows that the location of bodies, they have to be courageous and approach their neighbors, their friends, and their relatives to encourage them to reveal that information and let go of fear from the thoughtthatif they reveal this information theymay be taken as the one responsible for having killed this person. What is the current priority in promoting unity and reconciliation in Rwanda? The youth, you know, they are the majority in this country. Youth and women, you are everything and you are everywhere. So now, the youth are taking the lead, there are many organizations such as AERG and many others composed of young people who have energy, who are committed and who are helping the country. The youth are at the forefront in our priorities in reconciliation. We, of course, consider youth as the first priority because of many things including, our goal of prosperity. If you plan for the prosperity of the nation, you have to focus on the youth. The second, they are a majority of the population in terms of numbers – between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, they are 45 percent. Third, importantly, the youth of today, the current generation is a special generation in the history of Rwanda. It’s a generation which has not been involved in the past decades of this country but which faces the consequences – the immediate consequences – of the dark history of Rwanda. I am talking about the dark history of not only the genocide but other events throughout that history – people staying in exile for many years, which is one of the causes of the liberation by RPF. People living in Rwanda faced a lot of injustice including torture and killings, serial killings, throughout different periods before 1994. Many Rwandans were denied the rights to education, employment, those kinds of injustices which culminated in genocide ideology and the 1994Genocide against the Tutsi. Now, as far as the genocide itself, the youth being orphans today or finding themselves alone in being responsible for families, responsible for young siblings because their parents were killed during the genocide or their parents participated in the genocide and are now in prison. Some have relatives still in exile because of the crime they have committed. So those situations make the youth of today special. This is why they need a special focus. They have to be resilient enough to be able to connect the future generation with the history of this country. We have to aim to prevent this from ever happening again. What obstacles are there to unity and reconciliation? Challenges, obstacles, they are there. According to the Rwanda Reconciliation Barometer, we realize those challenges are slowly declining. They are still there but they are decreasing. We still have some people who have genocide ideology. Even today, people are caught in acts of denial and this is known as the final stage of genocide, denial. So, there are people still struggling. There are challenges in the global arena, as well, and how the world is working today. Every country is independent, we have regional blocs, we have international organizations such as the United Nations, where the nations meet together to agree on things. But how resolutions are delivered, how people commit to implementing resolutions is a challenge. Based on the UN resolution [the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide] the other countries, member states, should never tolerate dissemination of genocide ideology. They should arrest genocide perpetrators, those who are suspected, and deliver them to justice, either themselves or by transferring them to Rwanda. Before there was the international court, ICTR, now it’s in its residual mechanism. When it was still there, states were demanded to transfer people there or to transfer them to Rwanda, if they didn’t (or don’t) have laws [against genocide ideology]. But they are encouraged to have laws and a few of them have those laws. Enforcing them is another thing. This is why you find people enjoying life while disseminating genocide ideology on the territory of some member-nations of the UN, which is strange. States should commit to what they have agreed to. So, that is a challenge. The world today is like a village as they say, with quick communication so whatever is happening in another corner of the world crosses the world quickly through communication. It also takes years to handle just one case and those are genocide perpetrators. Coming back to those disseminating genocide ideology today, even in the region: if you know FDLR [an armed rebel group comprised mostly of genocide perpetrators and ideologues], it’s not far, it’s in the forests of DRC, which is a neighboring country, which is a member-state of the African Union and other regional blocs. That’s a challenge, but of course we can’t just resign. People should keep pushing. In Rwanda, there is the social-political environment which does not allow the dissemination of genocide ideology. When there is a case of genocide ideology it is immediately rejected by society. It is reported, it is denounced and it goes through the legal framework that exists, which is working well. Why do organizations, such as CNLG and NURC, continue to be necessary and important? If anything, these organizations should be strengthened, in their functions. I’m not talking about just the organization but the function of reconciliation, the function of memory, for purposes of sustainability. When you want something to be sustainable you put it not only into policies, but you should have a strong protocol to support it and you should have strong institutions, because individual leaders make things happen but institutions make things last. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
