Encounters with conflict and peace

My friend the killer

Josephine Munyeli
"I ran into a big group of interahamwe (the Hutu militia) armed with machetes and grenades. They were on the road killing people and damaging vehicles.

"This was in February - you know, the killing started long before April 1994. They started pushing me around and saying, "come and look at the Tutsi." All kinds of evil words. But an army major saw me in the hands of the killers and put me in his vehicle and took me to my office.

"A few weeks later when I was at the market..."
Related pages
A good man
GENOCIDE
Josephine tells the story of how her father was killed during the genocide.
"We know you're a good person but we have orders to kill you, so this is what we're going to do...
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An overloaded justice system
RECOVERY: GACACA
Josephine was part of a team which educated communities about the need for a new restorative justice system. “Traditionally, when someone did something bad, he was brought to the community to explain what he had done - and why he did it - and the community would decide how to deal with that.” ...
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Teaching gacaca
RECOVERY: GACACA
The introduction of gacaca had unexpected results, according to Josephine. Prisoners would point to someone in the audience and say, “Why is he not in prison too? You’re asking us to tell the truth. We were in the killings together..."
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Making amends for murder
RECOVERY: JUSTICE
Josephine lost more than sixty relatives in the genocide. How do you do justice for that, she asks...
more
Long term effects of genocide
TODAY
Josephine said, "What is being done in the healing work is like a drop in the ocean. So there are still people who haven’t yet been given the opportunity to talk about their stories and now, after more than 10 years, it is becoming too much..."
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