ABSTRACT
This chapter aims at contributing to knowledge regarding how to make reconciliation more effective after violent conflicts. Previous studies on reconciliation have extensively discussed about its complex nature and how it constitutes an important indicator and ingredient of post-violence recovery. However, these studies are often shallow as to what actually and pragmatically makes reconciliation approaches succeed or fail. There is thus still confusion, debate, and lack of agreement, among scholars, policy makers, and practitioners, about what reconciliation approach(es) work(s) best for post-violence recovery. A country-case experience on opportunities and challenges for reconciliation can thus bring an important contribution in this debate. This chapter draws from the experience of Rwanda, a country that is still recovering from a divisive past, which climaxed into the genocide perpetrated against Tutsi, between April and July in 1994. After the genocide, the new government’s nervous area was how to bring about reconciliation in a divided and traumatized country. This chapter discusses the opportunities and challenges related to how Rwanda engaged in reconciliation since the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.
