Letter: ​We can learn a lot from the experiences of people in Rwanda following 1994 genocide

During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were murdered by armed Hutu militias.

Although the Constitution of Rwanda states that more than one million people perished in the genocide, the actual number of fatalities is unclear, and some estimates suggest the figure may be closer to 800,000 Tutsi deaths.

In August 2022, six of us from SEFF went to Rwanda, supported by Thrive Ireland. We were hosted there by CARSA Ministries and Christophe Mbonyingabo, who has also visited Northern Ireland and SEFF on a number of occasions. Christophe had several members of his own family murdered.

The weeks we spent there will stay with me and other members of the team for the rest of our lives.

We met with people across all aspects of Rwandan society - the government, the churches, those working in areas of social and economic regeneration, but most impacting was our meetings with victims of the genocide, our visits to memorial locations such as Nyamata and also visiting cell groups in the mountains where perpetrators and their victims now work together in partnership.

How is this possible? Because the perpetrators we met had confessed their crimes, they had repented of what they had done and they sought forgiveness from those they had wronged and/or their families.

There were no ifs, buts or maybes with them, they fully acknowledged and owned their actions and accepted those actions to have been evil and unjustified.

Through Grace many victims gave forgiveness to these perpetrators and in many cases they fully reconciled and are united in their determination to build a better future - a Rwanda without artificially contrived divisions.

Ironically it took us to travel to Rwanda to be validated and reassured that the SEFF path is the correct path and that we must continue to impress upon those who are complicit with the bed of lies approach taken within our society.

No good can come without a willingness within those who perpetrated violence to be humbled, to be willing to account and own their actions and inactions, leading to them acknowledging the wrong and illegitimacy of their behaviour and their commitment to restitute and build anew.

We learnt in Rwanda that their people have little to nothing in terms of material possessions and access to disposable income but spiritually they are rich.

Conversely, Northern Ireland people have access to relatively significant levels of disposable income, access to education, housing and all the other core material needs a human being might have, but spiritually very many are impoverished.

As this milestone 30th anniversary since the commencement of the genocide is reached, we pray for the continued rebuild of Rwanda, for its people to flourish and for that beautiful part of God’s earth to flourish and to be an example to others around the world.

**The SEFF Team who visited in August 2022 were Rev’d Canon Alan Irwin, Yvonne Black, Katie Heenan, Paul Toombs, Sammy Heenan and myself.

Kenny Donaldson, SEFF director, Lisnaskea, South Fermanagh