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In Rwanda, a “reconciliation village” where genocide survivors and the murderers of their families live together
In Rwanda, a “reconciliation village” where genocide survivors and the murderers of their families live together
(SPECIAL SUBJECT / FRANCE 2)
An hour from the Rwandan capital Kigali, it is a place that nothing seems to distinguish from other villages in the region. However, in Mbyo, in a “reconciliation district”, survivors of the 1994 massacres live alongside former genocidaires. Sometimes their neighbor is the executioner of their family.
It was in the head of a pastor that this crazy idea germinated, ten years after the genocide in Rwanda. In three months, from the beginning of April until mid-July 1994, the massacres perpetrated by Hutus left 800,000 Tutsis dead throughout the country. Etienne Gahigi, himself a survivor of the genocide, felt the need to bring together these Rwandans who are opposed to each other. For their “allow us to live in harmony again”, he imagined making them live together in a “reconciliation district”.
In the village of Mbyo, located an hour’s drive from the capital Kigali, the pastor points out a house which belongs to a former genocidaire. The one next door was attributed to a survivor, he explained to the journalists of “Envoyé Spécial”: “By being neighbors, people can talk together again. And ultimately, reconcile.”
“That’s how the neighborhood was imagined: on one side a survivor’s house, on the other that of an executioner.”
Etienne Gahigi, pastorin “Special Envoy”
The neighborhood was built with the help of a Christian NGO, Prison Fellowship Rwanda, but Etienne Gahigi assures that no conversion was required to live here, and that “everyone in this village is free to believe in what they want”. Only one obligation: work towards reconciliation. “For the genocidaires, we set a condition: that they recognize their crimes and ask for forgiveness. For the survivors, the idea was that they would find a home and a normal life, because they had no nothing more. Reconciliation is essential to successfully look to the future.”
National reconciliation policy
If for the pastor, forgiveness is a Christian requirement, for the government, reconciliation is a stated objective as soon as the killings end to rebuild the country and reintegrate their perpetrators. Ethnic insults have been banned, under penalty of prison. The words “Hutu” or “Tutsi” no longer appear on identity cards. Repentant genocidaires saw the length of their detention shortened.
In Mbyo, the reconciliation district was built little by little. From fifteen houses at the start, it has grown to 54 today. About 400 people live here, including the pastor himself. For better “convince others to forgive” he sets an example by living in the same village as the man who murdered his sister-in-law and her five children. And warmly greeting the one who “long summer [s]we’re enemies” and now he “consider him a brother”.
Extract of “Rwanda: the miracle of reconciliation”, a report to see in “Envoyéspecial” on 2March 8, 2024.
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