The Great Reconciliation

When the violence finally ended in late 1994, the country faced problems of enormous proportions. Not only had almost 1 million people been killed of a country with a total population of 8 million, but millions more had been displaced. Further, any government or business infrastructure was in shambles. Having seen Rwanda just 15 years later, it was absolutely remarkable to see how much progress had been made. The people of Rwanda seem genuinely happy and good natured. God is at work in that country, and so many of the Rwandan people have God as an active part of their lives. When I mentioned this to Ebralie one day, she displayed real emotion. She said she agreed with me, and said that is why she still could not understand how the genocide occurred in Rwanda. Maybe it could happen in other places where the people were not happy or joyous or spiritual. She could understand it could happen somewhere else, but not in her Rwanda.

Perhaps because of the way that God was at work in Rwanda, the country had adopted a novel way of addressing the aftermath of the genocide. For years after the genocide, those involved were tried and jailed, leaving the country with hundreds of thousands of citizens in jails and millions of people in need of healing. One answer to the ongoing pain was a unique and controversial program called the great Reconciliation. The idea was simple but powerful. The country would allow those that had been jailed for taking part in the genocide to be set free if they confessed to their transgressions, and faced their victims or their family members to ask for forgiveness. The family did not have to grant forgiveness, but that was not a condition of release.

With this new program, tens of thousands of inmates were and are being released to become a productive part of the new Rwanda. Some argue that the perpetrators should serve their full sentences. But the government ultimately decided that reconciliation was more critical to the future of Rwanda than punishment. Furthermore, the forgiveness granted was just as important to the survivors as it was to those they forgave, allowing both parties to move forward. By virtually all accounts, the great Reconciliation has been a successful and critical part of the process allowing the country to make the strides it has in the relatively short period since the genocide.

Our last day in Rwanda, we visited the Genocide Museum. I was glad we waited for the last day to visit it. After five days and many discussions with the people, I felt I had a better context to see the museum. Ebralie had never been, and had told me before the trip that she did not want to go. However, when we made it to the museum she decided to go in. The museum did a remarkable job of outlining the issues that led to the genocide, and laid out the facts of the genocide in a fair and straight-forward manner. The photographs and displays were hard to look at, but they told the story more poignantly than any words could. The museum was emotional for everyone, but it was certainly more emotional for Ebralie than any of the rest of us. She had lived the story being told in the museum. I knew she and her family had escaped the genocide, but I did not begin to fully comprehend her story.