CCNR’s Lemkin Reunion Reflects on the Rwandan Genocide 20 Years Later
"We were condemned to live," reflected Esther Mujawayo on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Mujawayo, one of the only survivors in her family, spoke at the final panel of the Lemkin Reunion. "How can you live with these feelings of guilt?" she asked.
Co-organized by the Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery and the Open Society Archives, the Lemkin Reunion is an annual event bringing together survivors of and responders to genocide. In its inaugural year, the Lemkin Reunion focused on the personal and policy implications of the Rwandan genocide 20 years later. The panel discussion, moderated by CCNR Director Robert Templer, united two Rwandans who lived through the genocide with three international policymakers working in the region at the time in emotional and thoughtful reflections.
Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, who was abroad at the time of the genocide, returned in 1996 to find nothing. "I felt like a foreigner in my own country," he said. "There was no family, no house, no cows." This feeling of emptiness reverberated not only at a personal level but also at a societal level. Mujawayo added, "What was even worse than people being killed was Rwandan society being killed. It was nearly impossible to greet each other after the genocide."
In the months and years after the genocide, the failure to act in Rwanda weighed heavily on the international community. "It's evil," Charles Petrie, UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Rwanda in 1994, said to describe the genocide. "Tutsis were killed simply for being born." For Ian Martin, Chief of UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda in 1995, Rwanda represented the biggest failure of "never again," the promise made in the UN Genocide Convention in 1948.
Following the genocide, reconciliation has been an ongoing process. Gasanabo described the gacaca courts, a "home-grown solution that allowed perpetrators and survivors to meet and discuss face to face." At the same time, reconciling citizens within a society that saw neighbors killing neighbors is a lengthy, complex task. Mujawayo argued against reconciliation in favor of justice, asserting, "Why do I need to reconcile with the killer of my husband? I'm just glad to have a government that creates rule of law so we can live together peacefully."
Along with reconciliation within Rwanda, panelists discussed reconciliation on a global level. John Shattuck, the only U.S. government official who went to the region at the time, argued for "a commission of inquiry to see what prevented the U.S., U.K., and other EU countries from effectively engaging with Rwanda." Tragedies like the Rwandan genocide force policymakers to consider to what extent the international community is able and willing to respond to mass atrocities in countries like the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Syria today.
The panel featured:
• Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, Director General in charge of the Research and Documentation Center on Genocide within the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide
• Ian Martin, British human rights activist/advisor and UN official
• Esther Mujawayo, a sociologist and psychotherapist in a psychosocial center for refugees in Dusseldorf, Germany
• Charles Petrie, British diplomat
• John Shattuck, President and Rector of CEU
The Lemkin Reunion commemorates the life of Raphael Lemkin, an extraordinary jurist and activist who crusaded throughout his life for the international community to recognize and criminalize "genocide," a term he coined. It is largely due to his efforts that the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on December 9, 1948. Each year, this event will bring together people who experienced a genocide or atrocity crime or worked on the recovery.