The report released by the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), that says that Rwandan’s are increasingly accommodative of each other is refreshing to many. The research carried out between 2005 and 2008, aimed at assessing how Rwandans have progressed in the area of social cohesion after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

It will be noted that the process of bringing about unity and reconciliation in Rwanda was never going to be an easy task. But it was always going to be possible because it was based on the right premises. The fact that unity and reconciliation were based on issues like restorative justice, rather than retributive justice would lay the ground for the endeavour’s success.

Thus on that basis, the truth was brought forward and many people forgave those who had wronged them. Henceforth, the process of bringing about social cohesion had started and would succeed.

Rwandan society had lived harmoniously for many centuries until colonial and subsequent regimes sought to use imaginary and superficial distinctions as a basis of maintaining their rule. Thus for reasons of maintaining undemocratic political power, extremists divided the society and sought to exterminate the Tutsi.

The many years of bad/divisive politics led to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. In 1994, Rwandan society was devastated. But now, fifteen years down the road, we are seeing the results of good policies as contained in a vision that seeks to bring opportunity to all Rwandans as one.

This is not only a radical departure from what obtained in Rwanda before 1994, but is a new beginning for a better nation, and one can state that the past is now behind us and Rwandans now look towards a better future as one people.

Ends