Innocent Mugisha on the Unique Challenges to Reconciliation in Rwanda

Innocent Mugisha is a Rwandan educator and researcher, who is currently working on developing the history curriculum for Rwandan schools. Mugisha attended Facing History's Global Symposium during the Summer of 2005. In this clip, videotaped in 2004 when Mugisha attended a Facing History Institute, he discusses the challenge of reconciliation within the context of Rwanda's unique history and culture.
Transcript: 
"People are talking of the genocides and the Holocaust in other places, but the genocide of Rwanda, like any other, is unique in its own way. Because here we are talking of a neighbor to a neighbor, at the end of the day, the very people you are seeing to live together, are living together in different conditions.

Here we are talking of the perpetrator still has a life to live. The victim is also being told to continue living, but the circumstances under which they are living are totally different. One has a family, the other one doesn't have a family. You see? You are telling them to reconcile, but the amenities, the resources, are not the same....To me this one is a very big challenge. You are not reconciling equal parties."
Video length: 
00 min 59 sec
Date filmed: 
Jul 15 2004