{"id":9395,"date":"2020-10-22T21:18:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T19:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.interpeace.org\/?p=9395"},"modified":"2024-01-19T17:05:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T16:05:23","slug":"healing-the-invisible-wounds-of-violence-in-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.interpeace.org\/fr\/2020\/10\/healing-the-invisible-wounds-of-violence-in-rwanda\/","title":{"rendered":"Gu\u00e9rir les blessures invisibles de la violence au Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linda* is a mother and wife who lost her family during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She was 16 years old, when armed men attacked her home in Bugesera, a town in Eastern Rwanda, and brutally killed her parents, siblings and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost all. It was hard to move on. I was so much wounded; my heart was bleeding,\u201d <\/em>she said.<\/p>\n

When the killings stopped, Linda struggled for years to live with the harsh invisible wounds of seeing her father, mother and brothers murdered by neighbours.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine seeing the wife of someone who killed your family, take food to him in prison while you are starving with nothing to eat,\u201d<\/em> she said.<\/p>\n

The traumatic experience left wounds too deep for Linda to heal on her own. She was not alone to suffer some form of physical or emotional hardship because of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

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Members of the reconciliation village sharing their experiences. Photo credit: Interpeace<\/p><\/div>\n

She eventually got the courage to overcome her trauma after participating in a societal healing programme at the reconciliation village in Bugesera, established by Prison Fellowship Rwanda (PFR). However, it was not an easy journey for her to heal from her distress and extreme paranoia.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, we were not happy when the perpetrators confessed and were released from prison. We thought they will come and finish us,\u201d<\/em> said Linda. \u201cWhen we were brought together, I was afraid. In this reconciliation village, survivors and genocide perpetrators collaborated in bricklaying. I often had fears that in the process, one of them [genocide perpetrators] will hit me with a hoe from behind,\u201d <\/em>explained Linda. \u201cBut with time I have forgiven them. No one forced me to forgive. Despite what they did, reconciliation is possible. We are the story,\u201d <\/em>she stated.<\/p>\n

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Members of the reconciliation village sharing their experiences. Photo credit: Interpeace<\/p><\/div>\n

The reconciliation village hosts survivors of the genocide, perpetrators of the genocide, returnees from abroad who fled the genocide and vulnerable people from different communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to look eye to eye with someone who killed my family,\u201d<\/em> said Linda.<\/p>\n

On his part, Jean Pierre*, an ex-genocide prisoner said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared to face the families of people I killed during the genocide. But with counseling by Prison Fellowship Rwanda, I decided to open up and confess what I did. I also confessed to my wife, to whom I had lied all along that I was unjustly imprisoned. I told her the truth that I killed our neighbours. She was shocked. My wife and children were traumatised after learning the truth\u2019\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t