The red hills of Rwanda and three months of horror

I am in Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills, and am here for the first time. We just arrived to the capital Kigali. For being a capital it is very provincial, the tempo is laid back and the atmosphere calm.

One of the first things that struck me as we went out into rural areas, was the red soil. It is red due to its iron content. One's thoughts therefore go to Martin Luther King's famous speech - I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. Red hills and race based discrimination and violence. That would have a horrendous repetion in Rwanda. 

Memorial and grave of 10 000 slaughtered in a church.

In April 1994 the Rwandan genocide started.  The ground work had been made by Belgian colonizers as they took over the area after the Germans 1916. It started with fascination for race biology, which was in sway in Europe at the time. Their anthropologist artificially caused a race conflict by dividing the one people that inhabited Rwanda into hutu and tutsi. They had the same language and traditions, but the scientists looked for and emphasized differences. Fascinating for scientists, maybe, but catastrophic for the people of Rwanda both short term and long term. The tutsi who were in minority, and whom the Belgians thought to be closer to the Europeans, were favored and given a more prominent place in society. This would cause enmity and future problems.


The Belgians left 1959. Violence erupted, 20 000 tutsi were killed and 300 000 had to flee abroad. Fast forward to the 90:s. The tutsi refugees wanted to return and were met with hutu nationalist propaganda the was very similar to the Nazi propaganda against the Jews during the 30:s. The nationalists decided to solve the tutsi problem once a for all. April 6th the Rwandan final solution was launched and in three months over 800 000 people were killed in the most horrible ways. Machete was the favored tool of slaughter. The Land of a thousand hills was drenched in blood.


Visiting mass graves with 280 000 peoples, genocide memorials where thousands of skulls that bear marks of extreme violence and lay in ordered lines, seeing blood stains on the altars and walls of the churches that were turned into slaughter houses and rape sites, breaks your heart. How can this land heal again?

Village where peace though Christ now rules.

We witnessed a modern day miracle, as we visited a village where victims live side by side the murderers that killed their family members. They told the story. It all started with pastors visiting the murderers in prison and led them to receive and accept forgiveness from God. The same pastors visited the survivors, whose families were now gone and helped them on the way to forgive the murderers. Next step was to let them meet. First time was terrible. Much fear and suspicion, but step by step trust was built. The murderers asked for forgiveness and gradually it was given.


Today they live side by side in the same village. Their children are best friends and the families help one another. The families pray together. When you mention Jesus, their faces light up. They are all very aware that He had brought them all out of the abyss, a deep pit of darkness. Now their village is a beacon of light and hope that shows it is possible to reconcile and find peace again.

I asked a convicted murderer. How did you go from being a normal citizen to a blood thirsty killer that could slaughter your neighbors with a machete? He replied - The propaganda against the tutsi turned me into an animal. Today twenty years later, he and his neighbor Jaqueline, whose father and two more family members he killed,  are good friends. They help  to watch one another's children. It is fascinating to see their warm way of relating to one another. They touch, they smile.

 
Pastor Martin Luther King had a dream - "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together".


That very dream is being realized here today. On the red and blood stained hills of Rwanda murderers and victims sit down at the table of brotherhood. It is hard to grasp the extent of the genocide. And it is even harder to grasp the miracle of reconciliation that so quickly and so deeply has taken root. It is evident that faith in God's love and in the cross, the place of the gruesome death of Jesus and where he took upon himself the sin and wickedness of the world, has become the reconciliation, not only between sinners and God, but also between murderers and victims! There is hope!