ICAR Working Groups
On April 9th, 2004 over one hundred people gathered on the George Mason campus to remember and reflect back on the 100-day slaughter of almost one million Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus that took place just ten years before. Many of the participants in the symposium mentioned that they felt drawn to this event because of its conflict resolution focus, the chance to meditate and reflect on the event’s impact on humanity and, for many, the opportunity to remember family and friends lost in the violence.
The day-long event featured panels of experts on Rwanda and conflict resolution including Rwandan Ambassador Zac Nsenga, Ambassador Abdullah Said Osman, Diplomat-in- Residence at ICAR, Ambassador Michael Southwick of the United States Institute for Peace, Jean-Marie Kamatali, Kroc Institute for International Peace, Christopher Mitchell of ICAR, Harold Saunders, Kettering Foundation, Howard Wolpe, Woodrow Wilson Center and ICAR faculty, Kevin Avruch, Terrance Lyons, and Wallace Warfield.
The morning began with a film screening of the documentary The Triumph of Evil which profoundly impacted those who watched it. The highlight of the day was communicating with Rwandan students at Butare University via live teleconferencing. “Waving goodbye to the Rwandan students on the screen and watching them return our waves with a splitsecond delay was quite an emotional experience,” said January Makamba, one of the main event organizers and an ICAR alumnus. The day closed with one woman’s personal experience of the genocide, which was shared with an intimate crowd circled together to learn, remember, and reflect. On display during the symposium was an exposition of photographs portraying life in Rwanda after the genocide by Kimberlee Acquarro. The day embodied the spirit of ICAR and managed to be lively, serious, passionate, provocative, and hopeful.
Student organizers of the event embodied the lessons from their ICAR classes as they envisioned what kind of event would be appropriate for learning about and, at the same time, commemorating one of the world’s most tragic events of the last decade. Specifically, students grappled with how to provide a balanced view of the genocide while not diminishing any one group’s experience. Questions from the audience demanded to know more about why the United States and the international community, in general, were so late to come to the assistance of the Rwandan people and further whether it could happen again.
It is events like these that will remind future conflict resolution practitioners of the complexities of the conflicts they will engage in and the lives that lie in the balance. The Rwandan Remembrance event of 2004 and similar events are crucial to keeping African conflicts on the agendas of current policymakers. Africa should not be the forgotten continent in this millennium, for its countries and people have much to offer the rest of the world.
This event was organized by ICAR’s Africa Working Group, a group of students whose mission is to foster a better understanding of conflict and development in Africa by providing opportunities for learning and action. Generous sponsors of this event included ICAR, Global Affairs Program and the Office of the Provost of George Mason University. Africa Working Group is planning events in fall and spring that focus on the conflict in Sudan. For more information, please visit www.africaworkinggroup.org.