Where did the discrimination and hatred come from?

It is sad to hear some Tutsi call the 1959 Hutu Revolution “the so-called Hutu revolution”, as if it were not real. Tutsi who tend to belittle it miss the point. They are much like the Hutu who deny or minimise the genocide in an attempt to avoid accountability.

We must understand that when a revolution occurs, there are reasons and circumstances for it to happen. Likewise, if genocide took place there should also be reasons why it occurred. In both cases, a negative or revisionist attitude cannot help find a way of healing the wounds and scars left behind by social revolutions or genocides.

The two realities of genocide and Hutu revolution are essential to the present and future history of Rwanda. They constitute the major challenges of our legacy, and the puzzle that we are invited to undo or decipher.

Tutsi must recognise and weigh the consequences of their political influence for nine centuries, and their short-lived collaboration with the German and Belgian colonists. The Hutu must recognise their political role after 1959 and their leading influence to what is today known as “the Rwandan” or rather “the Tutsi Genocide”. If both sides entrench themselves behind their respective ideologies, denying and belittling each other, without making any concessions, there is no way to healing and reconciliation.

Post-genocide Rwanda is not only a harbor of pain and anguish resulting from bereavements and loss of properties; it is also a divided country, due to a host of seen and unseen reasons.

Rwanda is not only divided into Hutu and Tutsi, but also into Tutsi survivors, Tutsi returnees, Tutsi Francophone and Anglophone. Hutu are further divided into Hutu who are innocent, Hutu who participated in the genocide, and those who missed the chance of killing because almost all Tutsi had been killed. The latter do not hide their intentions to kill Tutsi if any opportunity was offered them today or later. This unrepentant attitude is rampant among prisoners of genocide in Arusha and in Rwanda.

We can ask: Is the healing process doomed to failure? Many think so, but do not dare tell a soul. Others would utter such sayings as “The Hutu will never get along with the Tutsi” or “How can I sit together with those who exterminated my family?”

Yet, the stark reality is that Hutu and Tutsi rub shoulders each day and share different activities. They have to live together, as this has always been the case for centuries. But if nothing is done today to solve the apparent differences and misunderstandings between various groups, one can fear that anything even worse might happen in the future.

In this regard the international community has a big responsibility. In the specific case of Rwanda, the most important thing is not to provide financial or humanitarian assistance in the form of food, medicine or weapons. Rwanda needs a deeper assistance in form of human rights and political education.

The major concern is how to educate a population that has been turned into “genocidaires”, and convince them that every human being including Tutsi and sound-minded Hutus have a right to live and enjoy life in their land; how to teach people who deny their responsibility and claim their innocence, that everyone is accountable for their deeds; how to teach those who have been offended, that justice should be done to those who committed murders and nobody else should be persecuted or presumed guilty solely because of his Hutu origins.

It should be emphasised that repentance and recognition of one’s guilt are a prerequisite to healing and reconciliation.

Another way the international community could help Rwandans is by disclosing all the information they have concerning how genocide was prepared and implemented. As keen observers of the genocide events, they can clarify how decisions were taken, who took those decisions, and, in fact, who was responsible for what happened. They can also help to heal minds and hearts by inculcating sound principles of tolerance, mutual recognition and respect, and fundamental human rights.