| It may be odd to think of Rwanda, the country that saw a campaign of genocide wipe out 800,000 people in 100 days in 1994, as a model for other nations, but as a series of events in Calgary this week points out, the country is taking real steps to deal with its past that other battered nations should note.
Among those is an attempt at civilian-based reconciliation, documented in the film Gacaca: Living Together in Rwanda, one of two documentaries focusing on the country to be screened as part of Tri Media Alliance and the Calgary International Film Festival’s Movies That Matter series. Gacaca tribunals are the country’s attempt at grassroots justice, and although the judicial system in Rwanda has been dogged by some serious problems, Patricia Marchak, a member of the University of British Columbia’s Centre of International Relations who helped monitor Rwanda’s recent elections, says Gacaca are one of the world’s foremost attempts at true reconciliation after war.
"In Rwanda, even though there was war there and it has been extremely traumatic, they are willing to try, and there’s a realization they can’t solve this unless they work together," Marchak says. "In Bosnia, if NATO pulls out, there’d be a war…. I don’t think there’s a war in Rwanda’s near future."
Marchak says Gacaca tribunals are an important part of the dialogue taking place in the country, where both perpetrators and victims are encouraged to talk about the genocide. She says that is essential to the country’s future, and is a crucial step that is largely absent from other countries that have faced similar calamities, such as the former Yugoslavia and Cambodia.
Canadians also have a unique connection to the Rwandan genocide, thanks to retired Canadian general Romeo Dallaire, who was the head of a United Nations contingent in the country that was powerless to stop the genocide, despite his repeated pleas for more peacekeepers. Dallaire is in the city this week to discuss his new book, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, and is also the subject of the second film in the Movies That Matter program, a documentary titled The Last Just Man.
Dallaire’s involvement in the genocide and his high-profile battle with post-traumatic stress disorder in the subsequent years have given Canadians a unique perspective on the slaughter. Marchak says Canadians should use the opportunity to learn more about genocide and politicide – the term she uses for the slaughter of groups of people for their political beliefs, rather than their ethnicity, such as victims of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.
"I think it’s important for the world to understand these issues," she says. "I think we could do more. Much, much more."
Gacaca: Living Together in Rwanda and The Last Just Man are screened on November 26 at 7 p.m. at the University of Calgary’s Murray Fraser Hall room 162. Romeo Dallaire speaks on November 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Castell Central Library. |
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