Rwanda - Part 2

Two weeks ago, Scott was speaking with contacts within the Rwandan Judiciary. Pepperdine places legal interns with Rwandan judges every summer and has been in discussions with the Rwanda government about starting a plea bargaining program there. After Scott visited Kigali in late 2020, the discussions intensified and moved into project planning. At the end of a recent call, Scott asked, “would it help if I came back for some in-person meetings to keep things moving?”

4 days later we landed in Kigali, only a 40-minute flight from Uganda.

I tagged along. I had never been to Rwanda and wanted to learn a little more of their history, both the genocide in the 1990s and what it’s like now.

Compared to Uganda, Rwanda has a 1/4 of the population (12 million) and is incredibly orderly. There are well-paved roads with sidewalks, curbs and street lights. Bodas (called motos in Rwanda) follow all “rules of the road.” They can carry only one passenger at a time and everyone must wear a helmet. Walking is safe. Crime is fairly minimal. Most everyone wears a mask everywhere due to COVID restrictions. We each had to take 5 COVID tests to enter and leave Rwanda for a 75 hour trip - despite the fact that there were only 4 cases in the entire country on the day we arrived.

The underlying question behind the order is the genocide of 1994 – how much of modern Rwanda stems from that horrific event?

This question can color nearly every conversation and interaction. When you meet someone, you mentally calculate how old they were at the time of the genocide and, if they were alive, what it would have been like for them. How did he/she survive? How many of their friends and family survived? What was their village or town like before and what is it like now? Did they stay in Rwanda or flee to a neighboring country, as many Rwandans did? If so, where and how did they decide to return?

I visited two of Rwanda’s 200 memorials to the genocide. It is an understatement to say that recovery from such an event requires an unprecedented amount of national work. Just handling the hundreds of thousands of criminal referrals related to the genocide required the creation of an entirely new court system. Interestingly, this court system formed the rough foundation for plea bargaining in Rwanda.

How does a country, now seeming so peaceful and prosperous, undergo a genocide? Especially one like Rwanda, where prior to colonial occupation by the Germans and Belgians in the early 1900s, there were 18 tribal groups with one language and no concern about ethnic or racial differences.

One answer is an “anthropological” study of the tribes that lived in present-day Rwanda during colonial rule. The colonial powers arbitrarily divided people by their perceived differences – appearance, “work ethic,” trade (farmers vs. herders), etc. 15% of the northern populace were cattle herders. They were named “Tutsis.” The Belgians decided that the herders were more “industrious” than other tribes so they gave the Tutsis more leadership opportunities and an elevated position over other tribal communities.

82% of the remaining residents were disfavored by the Belgians, they were the “Hutus.” The remaining 3% were the “Twa” or the pigmies who were considered the original inhabitants of this land.

Eventually, arbitrary distinctions became more concrete. Anyone who owned 10 or more cows was a “Tutsi.” Anyone who owned less than 10 cows was a “Hutu.” It isn’t clear if or how the Twa figured into this calculation.

Over decades, these artificial differences and the accompanying disparate treatment fueled resentment of the minority “rulers” by the majority “ruled.” In April 1994, for this and many other reasons, Rwanda erupted in violence after the Rwandan President was killed when his plane was shot down near the Kigali airport.

It is nearly impossible to comprehend what happened during the next 90 days. 1 million people murdered, mostly using garden tools. Millions more maimed, scarred and forever changed. The movie “Hotel Rwanda” explores some of this. The most graphic account I have read is from Tracy Kidder’s, Strength in What Remains. Scott mentions Shake Hands with the Devil, by Romeo Dallaire (a Canadian solider and the head of the UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda at the time) as an incredible perspective.

Many credit the current President, Paul Kageme, with ending the genocide and rebuilding the nation to its present relatively prosperous position. Not everyone in the international community is quite as generous or approving. As outsiders, Scott and I choose to recognize the nation's hard work to heal and move forward.

Today, Pepperdine is partners with the Rwanda Judiciary and other stakeholders, including members of the Rwanda Bar Association. The legal community in Rwanda is filled with talented professionals who love their country and are committed to serving her residents through improved access to justice. They are exploring all manner of programs to reduce the criminal case backlog and prison overcrowding, including a plea bargaining/public defense program. They are anxious to begin - enthusiastic, brilliant, and totally committed to serving their people.

Pepperdine is thrilled to even have the chance to participate, in any small way, to move the cause of justice forward in Rwanda.