The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

was even refined to the point of advocating the departure of Tutsi first,
since they had arrived first, even at the risk of demanding the departure
of the Westerners later, since they had arrived more recently. Kayibanda
and the MDR-Parmehutu supported such returns home in that order, at
the risk of appearing ungrateful in the eyes of those who had developed
“assisted democracy” – such as Governor Harroy. Similar plans existed
for Burundi, where the Tutsi had retained power after independence; the
Burundians had the chance to see them start in Rwanda, and thus had
the advantage of the forewarned. Also because of the mirror effect,
Rwandans, terrified by the Inkotanyi attack of 1990, saw in the 1993 murder
of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye, the first Hutu to hold that
office, a foreboding of their own fate: this haunting image now whipped
up Hutu extremism and revived the “twin syndrome”, in which nothing
could happen to one without happening to the other.
The habit of killing had been established in Rwanda since 1959, and soon
became a routine, the routine of killing Tutsis with impunity. Routine
dulls the senses and the sensitivity: when it comes to killing Tutsis, killing
one or killing two, killing many or killing few – what difference does
it make, so what? To kill them all, without the idea becoming unbearable,
all you have to do is assign a large enough number of killers to reduce
the average number of murders per individual to the point where the
idea becomes acceptable. You only have to read the numerous testimonies
(see the latest book by Jean Hatzfeld, Machete Season) to see that
this statement was part of ordinary conversations, and emerged, somehow,
from its macabre feasibility.
Conclusions: After all that, the genocide took place. We have seen that
genocide is the ultimate outcome of the refusal and inability to live together
(kubana). Others have told you that, or you tell it to others. I
would like to conclude with three thoughts.
The first is that, since and after the genocide, all reasonable Rwandans,
Hutu, Tutsi or Twa, reflected and made their choice in a trilemma: separation
(gutura ukubiri), extermination (kumarana), or living together (kubana).
The Rwandan nation has chosen, once again, to live together.
Ultimately, Rwanda has found that the best way to live together is nei -
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