The Unthinkable is Happening in Rwanda Once More: Forgiveness

Take a look at the trailer of this moving documentary in the making As We Forgive Those about a movement in Rwanda to reintegrate 40,000 killers into society who confessed to murders during the genocide.

Faced with the harsh reality that full justice will never be served, Rwanda’s response, both politically and socially, has been to promote reconciliation. In response to the enormous backlog of genocide court cases still awaiting trial in 2003, the government began releasing from prison thousands of genocide perpetrators who had confessed to their crimes and served a minimum sentence. Consequently, these ex-prisoners were sent back to the very communities where they murdered to await a less formal, community trial known as the ‘gacaca‘ court.

After discovering the truth of their loved ones’ murder through the gacaca process, a growing number of genocide survivors are releasing their impulse to seek just punishment and seek instead reconciliation. While most victims still refuse to associate with the murderers, a few are choosing not only to forgive, but also to befriend the people who slaughtered their families.

Why are survivors who lost entire families willing to forgive and befriend those who destroyed their lives? Why are once-militant Hutus who brutally murdered their neighbors now repenting of their crimes? How does the church, which failed at moral leadership during the genocide, fit into the process of reconciliation today? In a world that exalts “justice for all,” what does the concept of radical forgiveness say about the human capacity to forgive and its need for redemption? And what does it mean for the restoration and future of Rwanda? As We Forgive Those explores these questions through the lives of three genocide survivors and their encounters with the men who once sought to wipe them out.

In Rwanda, ex-prisoners are building houses for the families of the ones they killed as part of reparation and forgiveness.

"Forgiveness is not human. It's divine."