Confronting the past

There is no road map for Rwanda’s path to recovery.

The challenge is overwhelming and many of the initiatives have never been attempted at a country-sized scale before. The process has not been perfect but perhaps its greatest strength has been to match the scale and nature of the crimes. It was a neighbourhood genocide, and recovery efforts take place at an intimate, community level, with a focus on restoring workable relationships between victims and perpetrators.

Dr Phil Clark is a young Australian who has spent nine years doing fieldwork research in Rwanda. He believes that the way Rwanda has dealt with the genocide has been confronting, but ultimately positive…