{"id":342970,"date":"2014-04-13T03:34:06","date_gmt":"2014-04-13T01:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/i-am-rwandese\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:12:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:12:21","slug":"i-am-rwandese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/i-am-rwandese\/","title":{"rendered":"I am Rwandese"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Twenty years ago, Pina\u2019s<\/strong> country of Rwanda<\/a>, was struck by an absurd civil war that resulted in the death of at least 800 thousand people in a few short months. \u201cFor the past twenty years my people have continued to mourn the victims of the war and, at the personal level individuals visited private cemeteries.\u201d On April 6, 1994 <\/strong>President Juvenal Habyarimana\u2019s aeroplane was struck by a missile attack. None of the passengers survived, and the war that was already brewing broke out.<\/p>\n

In that moment<\/strong> Pina was living in the Philippines where she was following her vocation to the spirituality of unity<\/a> that she had been living since she was a child. She recounts: \u201cMy family was also impacted by the war. <\/strong>Thirty-nine of my relatives were murdered. I was taken by despair. Gradually I felt emptied of those sentiments that had filled my soul up until then, I felt that nothing made sense anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was transferred to Kenya in order to follow the situation more closely. <\/strong>She worked at the Red Cross and assisted the wounded and refugees from Rwanda: \u201cbut I wasn\u2019t able to look at the people of other ethnic groups in the face, the ones who had taken part in the massacres.\u201d The pain was too vivid. One day she came upon some people from another ethnic group and couldn\u2019t avoid catching their eye. The animosity grew. \u201cI thought about revenge, but I felt confused. I had come to a crossroad: either I would close myself in my pain and anger, or I would ask God\u2019s help.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days later at the office,<\/strong> she recognized some people from the enemy group who were living right there in the city. \u201cThey recognised who I was and felt uneasy, they began to turn back and walk the other way. They also saw me as their enemy.\u201d Pina saw that forgiveness was the only hope for social reconciliation. She had learnt this from the Gospel. \u201cWith a sense of power, I walked up to them and spoke to them in their own language. I didn\u2019t mention my own family, but only tried to show interest in what they needed. Just then, something loosened within me.\u201d A glimmer of light had been given to Pina.<\/p>\n

\"\"A year later she returned to Rwanda. <\/strong>She hardly recognised her sister, the only family member who had survived the massacre. She learnt that the man who had betrayed their family \u2013 a very close friend \u2013 was in prison. \u201cAlthough I was in pain and opposed to the people who invoked the death penalty, it was clear that I could pull back now that I had taken the first step toward forgiveness.\u201d She took her sister who had witnessed the massacre. \u201cAnd so we went to the prison together, to visit this man. We brought him cigarettes, some soap and whatever we could find. But mostly we went to tell him that we forgave him. And we did it.\u201d Her sister, Domitilla, would soon adopt 11 children from several ethnic groups, without making distinctions between natural and adopted children, and later won a national award.<\/p>\n

This year, Pina explains,<\/strong> \u201con the 20th anniversary we have something new: Tutsi and Hutu together in carrying remains to the National Cemetery for burial \u2013 all of us Rwandese.\u201d They are the true heroes of this country. \u201cThis is an important step forward,\u201d Pina remarked, \u201cwe are returning to the way we were before the war.\u201d The project was named The Flower of Reconciliation<\/em>, so that it might continue to bear fruits of peace in Rwandan society.\u201d<\/p>\n

See also<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Il Rwanda ricorda, venti anni dopo<\/a>, by Liliane Mugombozi in Citt\u00e0 Nuova online<\/p>\n

Il fiore della riconciliazione<\/a>, by Aurelio Mol\u00e9 in Citt\u00e0 Nuova online<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty years after the Rwandan war, the country discovers a way to reunite the people: through the “I am Rwandese” campaign launched by the government and a burial site for victims in the national cemetery. The story of Pina is a sign of peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}