The Necessity and Challenges of Establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Rwanda

I. Introduction

In countries emerging from periods of great political turmoil, particularly turmoil associated with gross violations of human rights, the question of how to deal with the past has been a crucial part of the transformation process. The issue is: how does a society return to any sort of normality when two neighbors living side by side are, respectively, victim and perpetrator of heinous crimes? Perhaps nowhere else in the world is this question more vital or more difficult than in Rwanda, the small, ¹ poor, rural, inland African state that became the site of one of the bloodiest genocides ever known.

As many as a million people died in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, ² and many others have been killed subsequently, largely because the tragedy remains unresolved in terms of both truth and justice. ³ The victims of the genocide were mostly Tutsis, although Hutus who had demonstrated support for governmental power sharing between Tutsis and Hutus were also targeted. ⁴

The genocide followed a civil war ⁵ in which the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) attempted to seize power from the ruling Hutu party, the Mouvement Revolutionnaire National pour le Developpement (MRND), led by General Juvenal Habyarimana. The fighting, which began in October 1990, ended with the signing of a peace agreement on 4 August 1993. ⁶ However, extremist Hutus saw the Accord as a threat to their power. Therefore, while there were many other factors behind the 1994 genocide, it was then that planning for it probably began. ⁷ The genocide occurred from April to July 1994 and ended when RPF forces seized control from the ruling regime. ⁸ Millions of Hutus, fearing retribution, then fled to neighboring countries. ⁹

Violence has not ceased in Rwanda, however, as both sides engage in acts of retribution. There are victims and perpetrators of abuses on both sides and there is no outlet for the anger and pain behind the abuse. Rwanda’s criminal justice system is wholly inadequate to handle the large number of detainees, and the international tribunal has also not been effective. ¹⁰ The need to establish a process that will allow healing to begin is imperative and urgent. The cycle of killing must end.

A problem surrounding the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission in Rwanda is the instability and ongoing strife in the region. It could be argued that with violence in Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo, the time is not ripe to undertake such an exercise. However, if one followed this line of thinking it may be that the time is never ripe, or when it is so, much more damage has been done so that the task will be even more difficult.

Broadly speaking, there are three types of political transition: ¹¹ overthrow, reform, and compromise. ¹² Being overthrown is the fate of a regime that has refused to reform: opposition forces become stronger and finally topple the old order. ¹³ This is what happened in Rwanda, when as a result of the genocide and the buildup of opposition forces, the RPF in neighboring countries invaded and toppled the government.

In contrast, when reform is undertaken, the old government plays a critical role in the shift to democracy because, at least initially, the opposition is weak. ¹⁴ In countries where change is the result of compromise the existing regime and opposing forces are equally matched and cannot make the transition to democracy without each other. Such was the case in South Africa. ¹⁵

Obviously, the nature of the transition plays a major role in determining how human rights violations of the past will be dealt with. The strength of the old regime in the new order is critical in determining the ability of the new government to deal with perpetrators of human rights violations committed during the previous order. ¹⁶ Various countries have established processes outside of the criminal justice system for this purpose, one being the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission. ¹⁷

A truth and reconciliation commission creates a record of human rights abuses...