Linda M. on Rwanda

Last night Linda M. spoke to WfWI Ldn JLC about her experience reporting the Rwanda civil war (1994) in which approximately one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Since the genocide she has worked tirelessly to reveal the responsible parties. WfWI provides vocational skills training in Kigali, and Linda M. was kind enough to recognise our work in the region. It is through this kindness, she said, as well as clean water, fertile land, and employment opportunities that Rwanda was able to recover as remarkably as it has (48% of lawmakers in Rwanda are women which also indicates that perhaps the western world could learn a thing or two from Rwanda). I was personally intrigued by Linda M.’s talk about rape used as a weapon of war and its ability to spread like a “contagion” which she argues is behind the widespread rape pandemic in the DRC. I was also struck by her ability to feel great empathy not only towards the victims of the genocide but also the perpetrators when she described both groups were “victims of vicious and vile propaganda”.