Rwanda: Ten years after...

OneWorld partner Oxfam provides basic information and facts about the events in Rwanda in 1994, their causes, and what is happening today.

Victoria Brittain a research associate at the London School of Economics reflects on the progress made by Rwanda to reconcile and reintegrate all Rwandans into one society.

In April 1994 about a million people were killed in a horrific genocide in Rwanda as the world stood by. Ten years on, CAFOD looks at the ongoing traumatic impact this has on people's lives and the courageous efforts by its people to build a more hopeful future.

Ten years later, genocide survivors are coping with social and economic reconstruction as well as the need to forgive, reconcile and live with former tormentors. Rwanda's president says genocide in any part of the world symbolizes failure of the international community.

To support reconciliation efforts in Rwanda, an alliance of religious groups has been helping to train judges for courts operating under the traditional form of law that allows the accused, along with survivors and eyewitnesses to genocide, to work out what happened in 1994 and who was responsible. To ensure that genocide never repeats itself in Rwanda or elsewhere, reconciliation is a central focus of the Stand With Africa campaign initiated by a consortium of relief agencies

The UN estimates that between 250,000 and 500,000 rapes were committed in 1994 during the Rwanda genocide. Of the women who survived these attacks 70% are estimated to have been infected with HIV. Most reportedly still suffer from severe trauma and have little hope of receiving adequate medical care or compensation.

"Ten years later, the children of Rwanda are still suffering the consequences of a conflict caused entirely by adults,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy

The 1994 genocide was a carefully planned and executed exercise to annihalate Rwanda's Tutsi population and Hutus who did not agree with the prevailing extremist politics of the Habyarimana regime. The Rwandan Government gives an indepth post genocide analysis

From: The Government of Rwanda