Abstract
The majority of scholarly research on Rwanda currently focuses on determining the causes of and participation in the genocide. In this paper, we explore a variety of questions that have come to the forefront in post-genocide Rwanda. In particular, we are concerned with the prospects for peace and justice in the aftermath of the gross abuses of human rights that occurred and, to that end, we consider the potential uses and limits of restorative justice initiatives in the process of healing and reconciliation in Rwanda. We argue that restorative justice initiatives have moved the country closer toward reconciliation than retributive measures, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. That said, we also suggest that the Rwandan government, despite claims that it seeks to achieve reconciliation, has not shown a serious commitment to healing the wounds that persist between either individual Rwandans or the groups that they comprise. In the end, then, we make a case for the importance of pairing a comprehensive search for justice in Rwanda with a commitment to truth-telling and accountability by the victims and perpetrators of the genocide, as well as by current government officials.
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Notes
Gourevitch (1998, 246) describes a visit to one such prison: “At Gitarama, more than six thousand men were packed into a space built for seven hundred and fifty. That worked out to four prisoners per square yard: night and day, the prisoners had to stand or sit between the legs of those who stood, and even in the dry season a scum of condensation, urine, and bits of dropped food covered the floor. The cramped prisoners’ feet and ankles, and sometimes their entire legs, swelled to two or three times normal size. They suffered from an atrophying of their swollen extremities and from rot; infection often followed. Hundreds had required amputations.”
Allegations of massacres committed by the RPF are not limited to reprisal killings in the aftermath of the genocide. Des Forges (1999) writes of RPF soldiers implicated in the killing of hundreds of civilians in the Ruhengeri prefecture, with some of the killings linked to the political beliefs of the victims.
By drawing a limited comparison between the political leadership in post-apartheid South Africa and in post-genocide Rwanda, the problem often arises of applying a generalized transitional justice framework to extremely particular post-conflict scenarios. This specific issue extends beyond the political reconciliation theory we offer, and often has implications on attempting to comparatively study other cases of transitional justice. Fletcher et al. (2009, 209) observe that transitional justice theorists, and more importantly practitioners, “may overlook the limitations and history of the context in which these interventions will unfold.” In short, “there is no tabula rasa society upon which transitional justice is inscribed. Context matters and it matters considerably” (Fletcher et al., 2009, 209). This point is especially critical to highlight because it undermines the mistaken notion that any common transitional justice mechanism is a good one. Transitional justice, and specifically the process of political reconciliation in Rwanda, must be carried out with due diligence paid to the historical underpinnings of the conflict and the contextual background against which the genocide was perpetrated. That said, characteristically, Rwanda and South Africa diverged drastically from one another as post-conflict states. At the time of the conflict, South Africa was industrialized in urban areas, and had a comparatively strong rule of law and an established Western legal tradition (Fletcher et al., 2009, 188). Furthermore, the conflict in South Africa was ended by an internally negotiated political compromise and the country has not experienced any substantive international intervention to implement transitional justice processes. The Rwandan case stands in stark contrast on all fronts, including the choice to eschew a truth commission in favor of individual trials. These differences, however, do not undermine our suggestions about political reconciliation for Rwanda’s political leadership. While acknowledging the importance of actions by the political leadership in divided societies emerging from conflict, we also recognize that these actions do not constitute a silver bullet for reconciliation efforts. The issuance of a public apology and offering of public forgiveness by prominent officials and perpetrators does not guarantee that political reconciliation will be achieved; instead, it is a vital step in an evolutionary process. Mandela’s actions did not guarantee a sustainable peace in South Africa, but did demonstrate a strong commitment to addressing past violations and building a more cohesive South Africa.
Govier (2002, 69) offers several examples: “On the first day of his release, he stopped his car to greet a white couple on the road. In an early speech, he thanked Black Sash, a white women’s organization that had worked against apartheid, his first white employer, Lazar Sidelsky, and the white people who had helped him during his years in jail. In a fashionable restaurant the day after his release, Mandela went around the dining room to shake hands with white businessmen, assuring them of his friendly attitude and desire to see a non-racial South Africa in which all people, including whites, would have an important role to play.”
In the 2008 Freedom House Report, Rwanda scored a 6 and a 5 for Political Rights and Civil Liberties, respectively; these scores range from 1 to 7, with 7 being considered the “Least Free.” Rwanda scored identically in 1993, just months prior to the genocide.
Gourevitch (1998, 37), recently writing in the New Yorker, observes that Paul Kagame is “unapologetically authoritarian, and Rwanda’s stability has come at the expense of internal opposition and dissent.”
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank fellow presenters, discussants, and audience members at the annual meetings of the Southern Political Science Association and the Midwest Political Science Association for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Research in Rwanda was made possible through grants awarded by the Office of International Programs and the College of Arts & Letters at James Madison University.
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Kohen, A., Zanchelli, M. & Drake, L. Personal and Political Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda. Soc Just Res 24, 85–106 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-011-0126-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-011-0126-7