Last week I was in Rwanda for the International Conference on Family Planning. I had long wished to visit Rwanda, intrigued how a country was coping with a genocide that had killed nearly 1 million people and affected almost everyone. The border police at the immigration counter was very polite, Rwanda has a visa on arrival policy and it did not make getting a visa difficult at all. Travelling on my flight was an Indian skilled labourer who had landed without a visa and without a penny in foreign exchange. I did a bit of translation for him but the immigration officer did not seem to lose his cool at this man who couldn’t understand much English, did not have a visa, did not have a hotel address, did not have any foreign exchange and only waved a letter of invitation to work as a fitter for a Rwandan steel company. Thankfully he had the telephone number of a contact and the immigration officer seemed inclined to make a call on his behalf using his personal phone when I finished my business and moved on.
Kigali is an unbelievably clean city. There were municipal workers trimming hedges with mechanized trimmers and others following behind sweeping up the cut leaves. The city had a smell of diesel fumes which reminded me of Delhi before CNG was introduced, but that didn’t mean anything else was dirty. Plastic bags had been banned since 2000. The streets had very orderly traffic, though the motorcycle taxis did weave their way in and out to find their way to the head of the traffic at the lights. I did a few trips on these motorcycle taxis and the trips were fun and very cheap compared to the taxi ride – 300 Rwandan franc for a trip which was 7000 by taxi.
I was keen to learn how Rwandan society was being built up after the Genocide, and I was little cautious whether I should talk about it with Rwandan colleagues. I approached one colleague cautiously and he was not the least averse to discuss it. He showed us his scar across the back of his neck where he had been hacked by a machete. He was the only survivor in his family and he was seven year old in 1994. Did he have any resentment? How did two people who were involved in so much bloodshed live together now? Our questions were many. He told us that his family home was still next door to the family who killed his family. But now was there no sense of resentment or recrimination? How was that possible we asked? We learnt from him and from our visit to the Genocide memorial next day that Rwanda had adopted a unique Truth and Reconciliation and justice mechanism. And if everyone who was a murderer was in jail, it could mean up to a third of the country would be incarcerated. How could a society afford that? How could a society re-build itself from such a situation?
The solution was a three tiered justice system with the crimes classified into four categories. This was recognizing that even though everyone accused may have been a murderer, their culpabilities were different. The men who had been part of hatching the genocide, planning the process, planting the seeds of hatred were tried at the International Criminal Justice system set up at Arusha, Tanzania, and they received the harshest punishments – up to 35 years imprisonment. Those who were part of the organized hunt and slaughter gangs were tried in local criminal courts and also given somewhat long sentences. Those who went after their neighbours with a machete or an axe were tried by a local council or the gachacha. These men were given an opportunity to confess and seek an apology, and if they did their punishment was primarily community service. If they didn’t, they had a short stint in jail. In order to build a sense of community every last Saturday of the month the entire country observes three hours of community service or Umuganda in which everyone participates.
The Rwandan efforts of rebuilding their nation and consolidating unity, is supervised with a firm hand by their President of 20 years Paul Kigame. There are police everywhere, directing traffic vigorously in the evening rush hour, watching unobtrusively from below a tree with their automatic weapons cradled in their arms. Our conference venue was bristling with security with a thorough check at the gate and screening of the barcoded identity card at the many doors of the main building. When returning the airport security was the most unique I have witnessed. The car was searched with all passengers and luggage taken off. The luggage went through a canine check, and we had to pass through the routine metal detector. This three part process was a little off-putting.
Rwanda is supposed to have a doubtful human rights regime, with little free speech and strong coercive presence of the government. According to the Humanrights watch report of 2018 there are extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detentions, including for petty crimes, and journalists are harassed. I believe all of it, having seen the somewhat overtly coercive police presence. But at the same time from what people talked of, and from what the data shows there is strong economic growth with improvement in health and educational indicators. Women form more than 50% of the parliament. There are civil society organisations working around health and gender I even met someone who was part of an human rights organization working with prisoners. The idea of social unity and development is very strong with Ministers in charge of districts, and senior government functionaries and leaders belonging to a ‘Unity Club’. The idea of learning from the hate and the genocide comes through very strongly through the Genocide Memorial in Kigali and the few others around the country. The idea of ‘ubumuntu’ or being human is promoted explicitly and an annual art festival is also organized around this theme.
Who am I to judge?
( Written on Nov 20, 2018)
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| The Ultra Modern Kigali Convention Centre |
Kigali is an unbelievably clean city. There were municipal workers trimming hedges with mechanized trimmers and others following behind sweeping up the cut leaves. The city had a smell of diesel fumes which reminded me of Delhi before CNG was introduced, but that didn’t mean anything else was dirty. Plastic bags had been banned since 2000. The streets had very orderly traffic, though the motorcycle taxis did weave their way in and out to find their way to the head of the traffic at the lights. I did a few trips on these motorcycle taxis and the trips were fun and very cheap compared to the taxi ride – 300 Rwandan franc for a trip which was 7000 by taxi.
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| On a motorcycle taxi |
The solution was a three tiered justice system with the crimes classified into four categories. This was recognizing that even though everyone accused may have been a murderer, their culpabilities were different. The men who had been part of hatching the genocide, planning the process, planting the seeds of hatred were tried at the International Criminal Justice system set up at Arusha, Tanzania, and they received the harshest punishments – up to 35 years imprisonment. Those who were part of the organized hunt and slaughter gangs were tried in local criminal courts and also given somewhat long sentences. Those who went after their neighbours with a machete or an axe were tried by a local council or the gachacha. These men were given an opportunity to confess and seek an apology, and if they did their punishment was primarily community service. If they didn’t, they had a short stint in jail. In order to build a sense of community every last Saturday of the month the entire country observes three hours of community service or Umuganda in which everyone participates.
 |
| Trimming the roadside hedges and lawns |
The Rwandan efforts of rebuilding their nation and consolidating unity, is supervised with a firm hand by their President of 20 years Paul Kigame. There are police everywhere, directing traffic vigorously in the evening rush hour, watching unobtrusively from below a tree with their automatic weapons cradled in their arms. Our conference venue was bristling with security with a thorough check at the gate and screening of the barcoded identity card at the many doors of the main building. When returning the airport security was the most unique I have witnessed. The car was searched with all passengers and luggage taken off. The luggage went through a canine check, and we had to pass through the routine metal detector. This three part process was a little off-putting.
Rwanda is supposed to have a doubtful human rights regime, with little free speech and strong coercive presence of the government. According to the Humanrights watch report of 2018 there are extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detentions, including for petty crimes, and journalists are harassed. I believe all of it, having seen the somewhat overtly coercive police presence. But at the same time from what people talked of, and from what the data shows there is strong economic growth with improvement in health and educational indicators. Women form more than 50% of the parliament. There are civil society organisations working around health and gender I even met someone who was part of an human rights organization working with prisoners. The idea of social unity and development is very strong with Ministers in charge of districts, and senior government functionaries and leaders belonging to a ‘Unity Club’. The idea of learning from the hate and the genocide comes through very strongly through the Genocide Memorial in Kigali and the few others around the country. The idea of ‘ubumuntu’ or being human is promoted explicitly and an annual art festival is also organized around this theme.
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| We paid our respects at the mass graves a the Kigali Memorial Centre |
In today’s world of rising intolerance, zenophobia and fundamentalism, the visit to Kigali was in some senses uplifting, as I think I saw an alternative model of healing together as a community which is embedded in local culture and traditions. It also challenges some of my human rights notions around the importance of civil political rights vs economic social and cultural rights. Does an apology suffice in the case of a ‘murder’? In the longer run will people really ‘forgive’ their neighbours who killed their family? Does strong arm administration have any role in a ‘rights and justice’ system – where some people’s rights to expression may be subsumed under the logic of ‘greater good for greater numbers’? The evidence shows that there is both call for peace, humanity and equity within an authoritarian system. Perhaps this is the best for a society recovering from genocide.
Who am I to judge?
( Written on Nov 20, 2018)
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