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Remembering in Rwanda

May 13, 2011

Rev. John de Vries joined two other chaplains on a grueling trip into the bush to find survivors of the Rwandan genocide and to deliver letters of apology from the perpetrators of the atrocities.

The perpetrators are imprisoned and had written the letters, describing and apologizing for at least some of their actions, after working a long time with prison chaplains who support a process called Restorative Justice (RJ). Chaplains use the RJ process to help heal wounds through interaction between those who committed a crime and those who were impacted by it.

De Vries is the Christian Reformed Church’s Restorative Justice program liaison in Canada. He took the trip to Rwanda to see first-hand a Restorative Justice program that is slowly moving forward. The CRC in the United States has an RJ program and a different person who serves as the liaison.

De Vries, who worked for many years as a chaplain in the Canadian federal prison system, went to Rwanda at the invitation of “Just.Equipping,” a registered, not-for-profit organization which seeks to offer training in Restorative Justice practices, especially in developing countries.

In Rwanda, de Vries and the other two chaplains – both Rwandan volunteer pastors who are committed to the ministry of truth-telling, healing, and reconciliation – traveled by bus and then motorbike taxis and finally on foot. Carrying five letters of apology with them, they were searching for the people who had lost loved ones in the 100-day, 1994 genocide that took the lives of some 800,000 people.

“Upon arrival at one village where we thought the victim lived, we were told he had moved. After another 30-45 minute walk, we found the victim,” he said.

Stories they heard from the survivor were horrifying. For instance, they learned of how one young child had been crushed to death on the rocks. The mother had been burned in front of her husband. Then the father was violently killed by a machete after being forced to dig his own grave.

The survivor was surprised and troubled by the letter. After having read it and recalling the terrible trauma he endured, the man was not ready to give the perpetrator “an automatic ticket to freedom, but it did help humanize the process,” de Vries said.

They then went on to visit the man’s younger brother and sister. Both had many questions.

“He (the brother) was not traumatized by the letter, but still the family needed time to reflect. Can we trust this prisoner? Is this apology real?”

The younger brother promised to call the chaplains when the family was ready for the next step – perhaps a visit with the inmate in the prison.

The start of the RJ process involves perpetrators writing and survivors receiving the letters from the perpetrators.

“One author of the five letters that we delivered had died but the letter was delivered because of the importance for the victims,” de Vries said.

“The delivery of the letters does have costs … But what a relief for the victims to learn what happened to their parents and siblings – how they had died and where the bodies could be found. Healing of the scars could now begin.”

Just.Equipping, the organization de Vries visited, was founded and is run by Rev. Pierre Allard and his wife, Judith Allard. De Vries met and became friends with Pierre Allard when they were both working as prison chaplains.

Allard’s ministry is geared primarily to prison chaplains and justice and correctional workers. It offers accredited courses in partnership with Queen`s Theological College, Kingston, Ontario.

“Restorative Justice attempts to equip people to discover how to listen to others, practice truth-telling, and repair harm that has been done,” de Vries said.

The Allards have decided to focus their work in the African Great Lakes Region, which includes Rwanda, Congo, and Burundi.

“Judy and Pierre chose to focus their ministry in the African Great Lakes Region because there is much pain, poverty, and brokenness,” de Vries said. “The 1994 genocide survivors are scarred by memories of lost loved ones and of not knowing their whereabouts or the circumstances of their death.”

Just.Equipping believes that RJ is biblical justice and tries to demonstrate this through word and deed. Just.Equipping believes that once equipped, encouraged, and able to take action, people often experience a level of reconciliation and are able to go forward in faith to build or rebuild their lives and communities successfully.

The letters can be the start of a process, said de Vries, that could lead survivors to meeting the perpetrators in jail, or possibly later in a church sanctuary – to share stories.

Spending the month of March in Rwanda, “the country of a thousand hills,” and the African Great Lakes Region with Pierre and Judith Allard was a life transformation experience, said de Vries.

“The beauty of the country is reminiscent of biblical paradise. Nature is rich and wonderful …”

But not all is well in paradise.

Thousands of genocide perpetrators are in Rwanda and Congo prisons. Daily news reports carry accounts of genocide perpetrators being found and prosecuted after hiding around the world.

“For each perpetrator in prison there are multiple numbers of relatives and loved ones who still ache as genocide victims,” de Vries said.

Just.Equipping has been working with chaplains in the area for four years.

An unforgettable experience in Rwanda that sticks with him, said de Vries, was the visit they made to a genocide memorial church. The church walls still had holes through which grenades were thrown to kill men, woman, and children seeking refuge in the “house of God.”

On display were hundreds of skulls, cracked as a result of physical beatings. “All evidence of man’s inhumanity to man and genocide,” de Vries said.

During the genocide, thousands seeking safety were bludgeoned or burned to death.

“The depth of reconciliation and forgiveness that I experienced was transformative. It was a series of equally shattering and euphoric experiences. It was unlike anything that I had ever experienced in church, pastoral, penitentiary, or hospital ministries,” de Vries said.