Petronia sits quietly beside her mother, hands on her lap. Her eyes wander restlessly around the room while her mother, Vestine, recalls the horrific times they both went through (see photo, right). "She is not doing very well in school," her mother says. "She is frightened by any little noise and frequently wakes up screaming at night with nightmares."
Petronia was six years old when she experienced a real nightmare. Her father and four siblings were killed in Rwanda's genocide. The murderers were her mother's brothers.Her dead family members were Tutsis. Her mother is a Hutu.
Like many others in 1994, their home was looted and destroyed by a Hutu mob. The small central African nation of Rwanda had exploded in a rampage by Hutu extremists that killed 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Petronia and Vestine may have survived the massacres, but six years later they are living in a society still shattered. Families, households and neighborhoods remain destroyed or divided, haunted by what happened to them and by the most extreme cases of husbands who killed their wives and children and sons who are said to have raped and killed their mothers. The full extent of the trauma is still impossible to quantify. A study of 3,000 children revealed that 80 percent have lost family members during war and genocide. Some 70 percent have actually seen someone injured or killed, and almost all Rwandan children have seen dead bodies or parts of bodies.
Whenever Petronia thinks of her brothers and sisters she cries. Although there are lessons in school where children talk about the past, only a psychologist could help this severely traumatized girl. But there are other needs to meet in Rwanda. Refugees still return from neighboring countries. Shelter continues to be a major problem. Vestine and Petronia fled to Tanzania in May 1994. When they came back from the refugee camp they had nowhere to live.
After the genocide, Lutheran World Federation helped Vestine and 25 other widows build new houses near Kibungo. LWF provided materials, transport and technical help, plus agricultural assistance. Now the women earn their living from the banana plants they grow around their houses.
In the last two years, the LWR partner organization has built some 4,000 houses in Rwanda. LWF work there is still being supported by LWR and other members of the international emergency alliance, Action by Churches Together, but six years after the crisis funds are difficult to find.
In addition to houses, LWF and other ACT agencies working in Rwanda have been able to construct water tanks and latrines, repair bridges, install water systems, and distribute seeds and food. LWF has also recontructed or enlarged much-needed classrooms. An estimated 60 percent of Rwanda's schools were damaged or destroyed during the events of 1994.
The emphasis now is on programs that focus on community development.
"There is a need for an integrated approach. Rehabilitation linked to development," says Anne Masterson, LWF director in Rwanda. In her view the situation is very fragile because the division in society is still huge. Rebuilding a society takes a long time. The level of hatred runs deep, she says, and debate about reconciliation has just begun.
There are 120,000 Rwandans in prison awaiting trial (see photo, right), charged with crimes related to the genocide. Petronia's uncles are still in prison, too.
Her mother wants those uncles, her brothers, to be sentenced. "Reconciliation with the killers," she concludes, "is not possible." |
