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This article studies the extent to which educational services and schooling outcomes of local children are influenced by the presence of a refugee camp in or near their community. Investigating Congolese refugees in Rwanda and relying on a mixed‐method approach, we examine schooling rates and access to school‐based feeding programmes in communities closer to and further away from three refugee camps. We conduct cohort analyses to compare the schooling outcomes of Rwandans residing at different distances from each of these camps. Our results highlight that children residing closer to the camps have better schooling outcomes and that locals residing closer to the camps have mostly positive views regarding the effects of refugees on local education. These results contribute to the literature on the effects of refugees on host communities and inform policy debates on how refugees need not be a "burden" if a long‐term vision shapes educational investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evidence suggests that iron deficiency (ID) affects cognitive performance, as measured in behavior. Although such effects must be mediated by changes in the brain, very few studies have included measures of brain activity to assess this relation.Objective: We tested the hypothesis that provision of iron-biofortified beans would result in improvements in measures of iron status, brain dynamics, and behavior.Methods: A double-blind, randomized, intervention study was conducted in 55 women aged 18-27 y with low iron status (serum ferritin <20 µg/L). Women were randomly assigned to consume iron-biofortified (86.1 ppm iron) or comparison beans (50.1 ppm iron) daily for 18 wk. Iron status was assessed by hemoglobin, ferritin, transferrin receptor, and body iron; cognitive performance with 5 computerized tasks; and brain dynamics by concurrent electroencephalography (EEG). All measures were taken at baseline and endline.Results: The groups did not differ on any measures at baseline. Intention-to-treat analyses revealed significant (all P < 0.05) improvements in hemoglobin (partial effect size attributable to the independent variable, η2 = 0.16), ferritin (η2 = 0.17), and body iron (η2 = 0.10), speed of responding in attentional and mnemonic tasks (η2 = 0.04-0.29), sensitivity and efficiency of memory retrieval (η2 = 0.12-0.55), and measures of EEG amplitude and spectral power (η2 = 0.08 to 0.49). Mediation models provided evidence in support of the hypothesis that changes in iron status produce changes in behavior by way of changes in brain activity.Conclusions: Behavioral performance and brain activity, as measured by EEG, are sensitive to iron status, and the consumption of iron-biofortified beans for 18 wk resulted in improvements in measures of both, relative to what was obtained with a comparison bean, in a sample of female university students. Furthermore, the results support the conclusion that changes in brain activity resulting from consumption of biofortified beans mediate the relations between changes in iron biomarkers and changes in cognition. Clinical trial registry: ClinicalTrials.gov Reg No. NCT01594359. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rwanda is the country with the highest enrolment in health insurance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Pivotal in setting Rwanda on the path to universal health coverage (UHC) is the community-based health insurance (CBHI), which covers more than three-quarters of the population. The paper seeks to explain how Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world, managed to achieve such performance by understanding the political drivers behind the CBHI design and implementation. Using an analytical framework relying on political settlement and ideas, it engages in process-tracing of the critical policy choices of the CBHI development. The study finds that the commitment to expanding health insurance coverage was made possible by a dominant political settlement. CBHI is part of the broader efforts of the regime to foster its legitimacy based on rapid socio-economic development. Yet, CBHI was chosen over other potential solutions to expand access to healthcare because it was also the option the most compatible with the ruling coalition core ideology. The study shows that pursuing UHC is an eminently political process but explanations solely based on objective “interests” of rulers cannot fully account for the emergence and shape of social protection programme. Ideology matters as well. Programme design compatible with the political economy of a country but incompatible with ideas of the ruling coalition is likely to run into political obstructions. The study also questions the relevance for poor countries to reach UHC relying on pure CBHI models based on voluntary enrolment and community management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We delivered a point-of-care ultrasound training programme in a resource-limited setting in Rwanda, and sought to determine participants' knowledge and skill retention. We also measured trainees' assessment of the usefulness of ultrasound in clinical practice.Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of 17 Rwandan physicians participating in a point-of-care ultrasound training programme. The follow-up period was 1 year. Participants completed a 10-day ultrasound course, with follow-up training delivered over the subsequent 12 months. Trainee knowledge acquisition and skill retention were assessed via observed structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) administered at six points during the study, and an image-based assessment completed at three points.Results: Trainees reported minimal structured ultrasound education and little confidence using point-of-care ultrasound before the training. Mean scores on the image-based assessment increased from 36.9% (95% CI 32-41.8%) before the initial 10-day training to 74.3% afterwards (95% CI 69.4-79.2; P < 0.001). The mean score on the initial OSCE after the introductory course was 81.7% (95% CI 78-85.4%). The mean OSCE performance at each subsequent evaluation was at least 75%, and the mean OSCE score at the 58-week follow up was 84.9% (95% CI 80.9-88.9%).Conclusions: Physicians providing acute care in a resource-limited setting demonstrated sustained improvement in their ultrasound knowledge and skill 1 year after completing a clinical ultrasound training programme. They also reported improvements in their ability to provide patient care and in job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global developmental delay (GDD) is defined as a significant delay in two or more developmental domains: gross or fine motor, speech/language, cognitive, social/personal and activities of daily living. Many of these children will go on to be diagnosed with intellectual disability (ID), which is most commonly defined as having an IQ <75 in addition to impairment in adaptive functioning. Cytogenetic studies have been performed in 664 Rwandan pediatric patients presenting GDD/ID and/or multiple congenital abnormalities (MCA). Karyotype analysis was performed in all patients and revealed 260 chromosomal abnormalities. The most frequent chromosomal abnormality was Down syndrome and then Edward syndrome and Patau syndrome. Other identified chromosomal abnormalities included 47,XX,+del(9)(q11), 46,XY,del(13)(q34) and 46,XX,der(22)t(10;22)(p10;p10)mat. In conclusion, our results highlight the high frequency of cytogenetically detectable abnormalities in this series, with implications for the burden on the healthcare. This study demonstrates the importance of cytogenetic analysis in patients with GDD/ID and MCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and youth, in whom visions of national development are invested, are central to post-conflict state-building efforts. In the case of Rwanda, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has initiated an ambitious programme of state re-engineering that seeks to transform Rwanda into a knowledge-based economy and thereby achieve middle-income status by 2020. Success or failure of this imagined future is largely contingent on the 65% of the population under age 25. Through cross-analysis of three research studies, this paper explores how RPF policies have converged with the lives of children and youth, so as to get a pulse on the post-genocide micro-social environment and thereby examine the effectiveness of the RPF's governance. This approach provides key insights into these dynamics by assessing how the RPF's policies related to children's rights, school-based education and transitions to adulthood have affected the lives, expectations and aspirations of young people. It is argued that the RPF's commitment to rapid reconstruction and development, such as universal access to education, has resulted in promising developments for young people, and has generated high aspirations for the future. However, the purposive imposition of the government's goals is predicated on a specific vision of a promised future that is often at odds with young people's daily realities. This dynamic risks generating a new sense of exclusion and foreclosing opportunity for many young people. Thus, as the RPF moves forward with its Vision 2020 goals, it must do so with a nuanced and astute assessment of how these policies interact with young people's experiences and shape expectations. While young people largely subscribe to the RPF's visionary approach to development, where it contradicts their daily realities, young people's responses weigh heavily on the possibility of the vision of either the RPF – or young people – being fully realized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The scholarship on Rwanda interprets a large swathe of rural activities as types of resistance to government policies instituted by the current ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). This paper presents a detailed life history of an elderly rural man who actively resisted ethnically discriminatory violence in Rwanda in 1973, 1990 and 1994. His decision not to participate in the state-supported violence provides an archetypal example of active resistance and allows for an analysis of what it means to resist state power in a particular time and place. This ethnographic research provides one route to nuance the current interpretations of resistance in Rwanda. It proposes that the dominant accounts of peasant resistance, which draw heavily on the theoretical work of James C. Scott, often neglect power differentials within rural communities, and fail to take adequate account of the normative dimensions that underpin an individual's decision to resist. It concludes with a call for a more careful analysis of how and why people resist state power in Rwanda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This presentation addresses the public felt problem regarding the lack of a reading culture in Rwanda. The government, academic authorities and the media often speak out of the lack of a reading culture and low levels of literacy among the Rwandan population in general that slows down the implementation of public policies and academic excellence. In Rwanda, like in many other African societies, there is a predominance of oral communication in people's daily interactions, which makes people depend and rely on oral sources for their information and communication. Hence, it is common to hear people saying that our reading culture is poor or simply inexistent. And yet, it is assumed that in the twenty-first century, reading and writing traditions are integral to living a successful life, and illiteracy is equated to failure to cope with the demands of life and prosper in modern times. In this regard, the overarching aim of this reflection is to increase the knowledge and awareness of Rwandans and Africans on the whole on the development of a reading culture and early literacy. Moreover, the use of this paper is to promote a reading culture and literacy in Rwanda by engaging the whole nation in a national effort to build a sustainable culture of reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper narrates in an autobiographical manner PhD research regarding pre-colonial Rwandan archaeology and its contemporary socio-political relevance. The paper reflects on the decolonial challenge that inspired the research and the ways in which, and reasons why, the research fell short of achieving its decolonial aims. In response to this complex personal, national, and disciplinary case study, the paper questions activist archaeologies and suggests that, whilst political engagement remains essential, the outcomes of well-intentioned approaches may actually perpetuate the undesirable political paradigms they seek to challenge. In conclusion, the paper proposes a hybrid set of decolonial responses that might be usefully employed in African Archaeology and the colonial discipline of archaeology more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aim to explore and thematically analyze higher education teachers’ notions about the most important problems related to students’ learning, including the teachers’ notions about the approaches to learning adopted by students. The study was carried out in Rwanda with 25 university teachers engaged in group interviews. Inspired by the concepts of metaphors for learning and approaches to learning, five main categories of students’ learning problems were identified: dependence, physical and economic resources, experience of a deep approach to learning, reading culture, and previous preparation for higher education. These problems are interrelated and point to the need to understand study levels in education systems as interdependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 200 years after its first publication, the Malthusian thesis is still much debated, albeit in a modified form. Rather than predicting a global catastrophe, most neo-Malthusians stress the local character of the relationship between population pressure, natural resource scarcity, and conflict as well as its dependency on the socio-political and economic context. This softened version of Malthus’s thesis has received little empirical support in cross-country studies. In contrast, a number of subnational analyses have provided some evidence for local conditional Malthusian catastrophes, although ‘catastrophe’ is a big word since these studies have largely focused on low-intensity violence. This article adds to the small body of subnational studies, but focuses on a high-intensity conflict – the Rwandan genocide. In particular, it provides a meso-level analysis of the relation between population pressure and the intensity of violence measured by the death toll among the Tutsi across 1,294 small administrative units. The results indicate that the death toll was significantly higher in localities with both high population density and little opportunity for young men to acquire land. This finding can be interpreted as support for the neo-Malthusian thesis. On the other hand, it is possible that another mechanism operated – in densely populated areas, it may have been relatively easy for the elite to mobilize the population, because of dependency relations through the land and labor market. Alternatively, in densely populated areas, there may have been more lootable assets, and the violence may have been opportunistic rather than driven by need or by fear. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses issues regarding the violation of people rights in Rwanda. It mentions that the Rwandan's government led by President Paul Kagame in 2008 passed the Law Number 18/2008 which prohibited the incitement of genocide through ethnic affiliation. It cites that the Genocide Ideology law was codified by Rwandan government's campaign and it lead to protests from several international human rights both domestically and abroad. It highlights that international human rights community was right to worry about the consequences of the government's genocide campaign as the law impose damage to the ethno-cultural vitality of the Rwandan peoples.

In recent years, oral history has been celebrated by its practitioners for its humanizing potential, and its ability to democratize history by bringing the narratives of people and communities typically absent in the archives into conversation with that of the political and intellectual elites who generally write history. And when dealing with the narratives of ordinary people living in conditions of social and political stability, the value of oral history is unquestionable. However, in recent years, oral historians have increasingly expanded their gaze to consider intimate accounts of extreme human experiences, such as narratives of survival and flight in response to mass atrocities. This shift in academic and practical interests begs the questions: Are there limits to oral historical methods and theory? And if so, what are these limits? This paper begins to address these questions by drawing upon fourteen months of fieldwork in Rwanda and Bosnia-Hercegovina, during which I conducted multiple life history interviews with approximately one hundred survivors, ex-combatants, and perpetrators of genocide and related mass atrocities. I argue that there are limits to the application of oral history, particularly when working amid highly politicized research settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In two studies that were conducted in Rwanda, we have examined the conceptualizations held by people who have experienced genocide with regard to reconciliation sentiment and quantitatively assessed the relationship between reconciliation sentiment and mental health. It was found that the participants have articulated conceptualizations regarding the nature of reconciliation sentiment. These conceptualizations are consistent with the way the genocide victims personally experienced reconciliation. More importantly, one type of reconciliation sentiment (the one corresponding to a renewed capacity to live together, hear each other, work together, and to forge compromises on a daily basis) was associated with mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Viewpoint argues that international development aid agencies have failed adequately to address the rights and needs of genocide survivors in Rwanda. It illustrates that genocide survivors remain impoverished and marginalised, and that development aid agencies only tangentially, if at all, acknowledge their vulnerability and take steps to empower them to realise their rights. It provides examples of aid programmes that are reaching genocide survivors and urges development aid agencies in Rwanda to design and implement programmes explicitly for genocide survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The participation of women in the 1994 Rwandan genocide should be considered in the context of gender relations in pre-genocide Rwandan society. Many 'ordinary' women were involved in the genocide but, overall, committed significantly fewer acts of overt violence than men. Owing to the indirect nature of women's crimes, combined with male 'chivalry', women may be under-represented among those pursued for genociderelated crimes, despite the broad conception of complicity in Rwanda's Gacaca Law. Women in leadership positions played a particularly important role in the genocide, and gendered imagery, including of the 'evil woman' or 'monster', is often at play in their encounters with the law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1994, countries and institutions across the world failed to prevent, or stop, the Rwandan genocide. Since then, however, many national and international officials have travelled to Rwanda to express their remorse and regret regarding the international failure to halt the genocide. Their statements of regret constitute the official response to the international failure from the governments and institutions that have been implicated in this occurrence. This article analyses the three most well-known of these political speeches, in order to explore how they come to terms with the international failure. Departing from existing analyses that focus on the apologetic character of these speeches, in this article, I focus on their confessional elements. Understanding these speeches as confessional acts draws attention to their selfinterested nature as attempts by these political leaders to configure the international failure as their personal 'sin' and then confess its occurrence in order to demonstrate their enlightenment and secure their redemption. In highlighting the self-focused nature of these official responses to the international failure, I demonstrate how they ultimately display the same indifference to the suffering of the Rwandan Tutsis as signified by the international failure itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Trachoma is the oldest blinding ocular infection that has well known predisposing risk factors for its transmission. The prevalence of trachoma in Rwanda has been unknown as no trachoma population-based survey had ever been undertaken. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Trachoma and assess associated risk factors for its transmission. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study of children aged 1 to 9 years and adult women aged 15 and above. Study setting was Gatsibo (Eastern Province) and Nyaruguru (Southern Province) Districts, Rwanda. Clusters were selected through probability proportion-to-size sampling and eligible persons were sampled using a systematic random sampling method. Data were collected using three generic survey questionnaires (village, household and individual level) as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Results: 3,451 children and 1,841 adult women underwent ocular examination for trachoma assessment. The prevalence of trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) among children was 1.32 % [95% CI, 0.77-1.86] in Gatsibo and 0.73% [95% CI, 0.33-1.13] in Nyaruguru Districts, respectively; with both districts having a prevalence below the WHO/International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) cut-off point of 10% for trachoma to be taken as disease of public health importance. There was no case of blinding trachomatous trichiasis and corneal opacity in both districts. Risk factors present for trachoma transmission were minimal. Conclusion: Trachoma is not a disease of public health importance in Gatsibo and Nyaruguru Districts in Rwanda [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rwandan genocide has raised questions on the most eff ective means to provide justice in a post-genocide scenario. The 'Gacaca' courts set up in Rwanda, dispensing a form of local justice, is one means of post-genocide justice delivery which has been explored in the Rwandan context. This paper, apart from providing a descriptive account of the Gacaca system, seeks to evaluate this mechanism both in theory and in practice while analyzing the arguments for and against such a system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ethnographic research with young Rwandans in Kigali, this paper explores the role of the “ethnic” categories “Hutu,” “Tutsi” and “Twa” in their everyday relations and relationships. Through exploring their narratives, practices and social interactions, the paper demonstrates that—despite current state policies that seek to de-emphasize “ethnic” identities—ethnicity remains salient in contemporary Rwanda. Although many young Rwandans continue to forge inter-ethnic ties, there is a persistent desire to know the ethnic identity of significant others and to categorize them on an ongoing basis. Exploring the complexities, contradictions and uncertainties of these processes of categorization, this paper investigates the relationship between “conceptual” categories and “concrete” persons in contemporary Rwanda. As such, it raises fundamental questions about what young Rwandans understand “Hutu,” “Tutsi” and “Twa” to mean and the role of “ethnic” categories, stereotypes and anomalies in structuring their social worlds. The evidence presented suggests that current approaches to reconciliation do not sufficiently address the “ethnic” logic that persists in Rwanda and may instead be entrenching it, increasing the risk that any recurrence of violence would once again have “ethnic” targets and be as extensive and brutal as in 1994. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word “reconciliation” is a key political slogan of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) government, and is widely used by donors, media, and Rwandans themselves. Despite ubiquity, the meaning of “reconciliation” remains unclear. Drawing on fieldwork in two communities in southern Rwanda, this paper examines how respondents understand and articulate the term. For respondents, reconciliation: (i) requires punitive justice informed by a hierarchy of responsibility for crimes; (ii) does not necessarily involve forgiveness; and (iii) is repeatedly referred to as returning to “the way things were before.” The paper then contrasts these understandings and expectations with the official government discourse on reconciliation, the “RPF Healing Truth,” a narrative which, among other things, stresses that the “hauts responsables” (high leadership) of the previous regime is primarily responsible for the genocide even though a large segment of the population participated, and the need to “improve,” meaning chiefly educate and emancipate, Rwandans. The comparison of the “public” and “hidden” transcripts on reconciliation reveals areas of both agreement and disagreement. For example, the notion of a hierarchy of responsibility for the genocide spanning from the “hauts responsables” to the “bas peuple” (low people) is found in both discourses. Grassroots respondents, however, also attribute some responsibility for the genocide to the RPF who are themselves part of the “hauts responsables.” The article concludes by highlighting signs of an internal contradiction between RPF reconciliation policy and practice: as the RPF calls for Rwandan emancipation, education and critical thinking on the one hand, it attempts to “institutionalize” and control people's behaviour on the other, as is seen in the example of “state-bestowed” forgiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the journal Ethnicities was launched in 2001, the first issue included an article by this author, which examined the politics of 'race' and identity as central ingredients in the Rwanda genocide of 1994. This current article considers how political identities have been reconstructed since the genocide, especially from above. History, law and politics are examined, as central instruments in government efforts to construct a new Rwandan society and ensure that genocide will 'never again' be possible. Evidence suggests that inequalities in income and land distribution have grown rapidly since 1994. At the same time, the poor and marginalized often find it difficult to openly express their views, including their political identities outside of officially circumscribed spaces and categories. Debates continue around numbers of victims and perpetrators, and new inter-elite conflicts have emerged along language lines. The article shows how race categories have been replaced with new terms, which arise from a particular reading of the genocide. A new foundation myth for Rwanda, a form of diasporic victim nationalism, is also briefly explored. Re-labelling Rwandans from above, the state continues to exercise tight control over the public expression of political identities. Open political debate is very difficult; the government frequently feels it is being attacked, and accuses critics of divisionism or harbouring a genocide mentality. If more inclusive forms of Rwandan-ness are to emerge in future, state controls will need to be relaxed, so that more complex forms of political identities can finally emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to read together three texts that refer to the Rwandan genocide and to draw attention to certain paradoxes that emerge from the way in which the texts might be said to talk to and past each other. The overall intention is to throw light on the complications in witnessing such an event, and to themes of justice and politics that arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the historical memory of Rwandans in relationship to the genocide in 1994. According to the article, during April to July 1994, more than 800,000 people were killed and millions more fled to neighboring countries like Congo or further to Europe and elsewhere. The author discusses how Rwandans have constructed a national myth of "heroes" from this period and are trying to create a unified nation with a de-emphasis on ethnic groups.

This article examines the dilemmas of post-genocide Rwanda, where society finds itself caught between justice and reconciliation. One of the major challenges for Rwandans today is to engender reconciliation in a deeply wounded nation and do justice to both victims and perpetrators. It is difficulty to affirm the victims, punish the perpetrators and at the same time bring about reconciliation between them. Yet there are unequivocal claims, especially from the victims, that there can be no justice without reparation and there can be no reconciliation without justice. To bring about justice and reconciliation, the Gacaca process was put in place, but it has turned out to be a source of fear for the perpetrators, who are desperate to bury the evidence by intimidating the survivors, and for the survivors, who are now living in fear of their lives. Consequently, the rising insecurity of survivors has become a matter of national concern, and the challenges to the Gacaca process are threatening to hamper its progress. But this apparently is the only viable justice system for communities to carry out trials at community level, for it was there that the crime of genocide was committed in a mass-killing frenzy. Truth telling and confessions by perpetrators, and forgiveness by victims have been identified as crucial steps towards reconciliation, but the dilemma lies in the inherent contradictions in the application of these concepts: truth, confession and forgiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's experiences on his visit to Rwanda as a scholar of genocide studies. As a guest at the National University of Rwanda, he learned how the country has been forced to start anew after the genocide in 1994. Anastase Shyaka, a professor, and Major General Karenzi Karake assisted him in his visits to several genocide memorial sites and gacaca meetings, the village assemblies instituted to try alleged perpetrators. He gave a workshop on comparative genocide at the university's Center for Conflict Management. After the workshop, he then toured the countryside and visited cooperatives established by the Tutsi and Hutu widows. He contends that his interaction with the Rwandans enabled him to have learned more about the details of the genocide.

The article focuses on the genocide that took place in the nation of Rwanda in 1994 and the process of political and social reconciliation in the aftermath. The author examines the role of truth telling and public disclosure of regime offenses in order for deep healing to occur in divided societies. The role of churches to promote reconciliation is also discussed.

Over a decade after the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), an assessment of its achievements with regard to its role in fostering reconciliation among Rwandans must be undertaken. The ICTR's activities have provided a setting for witnesses and victims of the genocide to testify before judicial authorities. However, persisting obstacles involving the nature of the conflict and ongoing instability in the country have hindered progress in efforts at national reconciliation, and addressing the issue of compensation for victims remains inadequate. The ICTR continues to play a crucial role in shedding light on the atrocities and endeavouring to raise awareness for victims’ issues at the international level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The epicentre of post-genocide Rwandan society and politics has been the need for reconciliation to assuage ethnic tensions and end a culture of impunity. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has yet to meet its goal of reconciliation in Rwanda: The failure of the tribunal goes beyond its institutional shortcomings and can be attributed the norms of international criminal law that render it an inappropriate response to criminalizing mass violence. The Gacaca courts were resurrected in Rwanda as an indigenous form of restorative justice. The principles and process of these courts hope to mitigate the failures of "Arusha Justice" at the tribunal and seeks to punish or reintegrate over one hundred thousands genocide suspects. Its restorative foundations require that suspects will be tried and judged by neighbours in their community. However, the revelation that Gacaca is a reconciliatory justice does not preclude its potential for inciting ethnic tension it if purports to serve as an instrument of Tutsi power. The state-imposed approach of command justice has politicised the identity of the participants in Gacaca -- perpetrators remain Hutus and victims and survivors remain Tutsis. Additionally, the refusal of the Kagame government to allow for the prosecution of RPF crimes to be tried in Gacaca courts empowers the notion that Tutsi survival is preconditioned by Tutsi power and impunity. If Gacaca fails to end the perceptions of impunity in post-genocide Rwanda, it will come at a much higher cost for reconciliation than the failure of the ICTR. The relevance of justice after genocide speaks to the appropriateness of retributive and restorative models of justice in a post-genocide society such as Rwanda. Additionally, the model of justice must be reconciled to the nature of a political regime that imposes unity under an ethnocratic minority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the geopolitical condition in the Great Lakes region. It provides an overview on the crisis in Kivu, a region in the Republic of Congo, and its impact on the Great Lakes area. It looks into the role of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) leadership in reviving developments in the refugee situation in the region. It also tackles the role of the Rwandan leadership in conceiving the return of the Rwandan refugees to Rwanda.

The article discusses the development of service learning project in Rwanda with the collaborative efforts of committed groups like family and consumer sciences (FCS) teachers, students and community members. It states that the initiative was made to promote global citizenship by taking action to address orphaned school-aged children's inability to get educational resources in the country. It outlines the conceptualization, implementation and sustainability of the service learning project.

The article focuses on the social and political conditions of Rwanda. The country is effectively a one-party state, despite the multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections held in the year 2003 and the participation of opposition parties in the government. Independent parties are expected to continue to be proxies of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.