Reconciliation

Working here at the UN is another experience all of its own. We have met a diverse group of people from all over the world that are helping to bring justice to the people of Rwanda and end the legacy of impunity that has been associated with war crimes and genocide. We watched a video last night that was produced by the ICTR to raise awareness about the Tribunal and all of its accomplishments so far. It talks about how the Tribunal was the first to convict a head leader of a state, a prime minister, of genocide and how it is really hoping to deliver the message to prepetrators of crimes that they will no longer go unpunished. Many of the judgments that have been handed down are for life sentences or atleast 15-25 years. It is also chilling to read through some of the witness testimonies and how they made it out alive but lost so many members of their families. In speaking with a representative in Rwanda that is heading up one of the projects we are researching, I asked about the spirit of reconciliation in Rwanda. His comment was that there is not reconciliation in Rwanda yet. People are living together because they don't have much choice but the reconciliation process will take generations. The sense of reconciliation and assessing the impact of the Tribunal on Rwandan society is a research topic that we may be looking further into so it will be interesting to get different people's perspectives on that. We are hoping to go on mission to Kigali at some point before our internship ends which is something I am very excited about. We just have to convince one of our supervisors that we should be allowed to go!