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Genocide in Rwanda: Personal reflections
Abstract
During the 100 days which followed the assassination of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on 6 April 1994 up to a million people, mainly members of the Tutsi tribe, were massacred in Rwanda. This paper describes the consequences and provides a personal view regarding the factors that, taken together, explain this awful act of genocide. Factors that are considered include population pressure in a densely populated country, conspiracy by members of a ruling élite whose power was crumbling, brutalization and indoctrination of a local militia, alienation of victims, an escalating cycle of violence, rites of passage, ethnic hatred, repression of affects and collective psychological disorder. Each of these seems to have interacted with the others to bring about a brush-fire effect which resulted, within 2 weeks, in massacres, rapes and other acts of extreme violence in huge numbers in townships across the country. The danger of further violence remains high. If further repetition of the horrors of genocide is to be prevented a proper study should be made of the circumstances and the international actions that need to be taken. In addition to the Trauma Recovery Programme that is currently in train the following interventions should be considered if the cycle of violence is to be broken: economic aid to set up the industrial base that is needed to ease population pressure and allow displaced persons to return; the establishment of a system of justice that ensures that those who organized and incited the genocide will not go unpunished; a programme of re-education to counteract the effects of the programme of indoctrination that has taken place; expansion of the existing psychological support to make it available and acceptable to all of those Rwandans who have been and are continuing to be traumatized by violence and displacement.
The article highlights the need for a support community group for women who survived the Rwandan Genocide, and who are completing groupwork for Post traumatic Stress Disorder. The authors review practice literature, discuss specific strategies for adult women, many of whom had been children during the genocide, and introduce a seven-week group experience that leads to development of a community of survivors. The seven-week group incorporates a Rites of Passage in association with a spirituality framework. The authors incorporate Rwandan cultural practices familiar to women who had lived in the country prior to the genocide.
The aim of this article is to give an overview of some of the key dimensions of variation in cultural and religious rituals during the immediate period after a death and in the longer term, in order to inform service delivery in multi-cultural societies. For each area we give examples of different customs, and consider their functions and possible impact. Dimensions considered in the immediate period after bereavement are: The time and space given to formal rituals, expression of feelings, assertion of status and disposal of the body. In the longer term, we look at variations in remembering the deceased and in continuing bonds. Throughout we consider the interplay between individual responses and the person's cultural and religious context. Our objective is to provide an accessible introduction for practitioners new to working with bereavement and provide a succinct reference point for more experienced bereavement workers.
This article reviews four DVDs of recent films about the Rwandan massacres of 1994 and gives a summary of the history leading up to the violence. The author considers the inevitable bias of those who are in a position to write history, film as a tool for meaning-making, and the possible role of bereavement interventions in breaking vengeful cycles of violence.
Bereavement by murder or manslaughter is often associated with a high incidence of factors which increase the risk of lasting psychological problems after bereavement. In this study it appears that self-perpetuating vicious circles often accounted for the persistence of symptoms, which fitted the diagnostic categories of post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety states, panic syndromes, obsessive revenge-seeking, and depression. Therapeutic approaches should be aimed at interrupting these vicious circles and fostering the work of grieving.
Discusses the experiences, attitudes, and transformations of returning Vietnam veterans, using material obtained from interviews and conversations with the returnees. The "warrior myth" is discussed in terms of how it affects the psychological makeup of the soldier before and after his involvement in combat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Título en la cubierta: Thought Reform. A Psychiatric Study of Brainwashing in China
Atlas of the Holocaust Death, grief and mourning in contemporary Britain
- M Gilbert
- Michael Joseph
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Rwanda 1994: a report of the genocide
- Physicians For Human Rights
PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS. (1994). Rwanda 1994: a report of the genocide. University Dept. of Forensic Medicine, The Royal Infirmary, Dundee: Physicians for Human Rights (UK).