Reconciliation while conflict continues
Reconciliation implies that the conflict is over and now it is time to make peace between the victim and the perpetrator. However, reading about current events in Rwanda shows me that at least on some level, conflict is still there. An article from the BBC reports of a French author who is “on trial in Paris accused of inciting racial hatred in a book on the Rwandan genocide.� While I cannot speak to his perspective or ideas, the report of his trial illustrates how current the issues of ethnic divisions are. Rusesabagina, in the introduction to An Ordinary Man writes, “What caused this to happened? Very simple: words.� (p. xiv) How can people talk and reconcile when words are still agitating ethnic divisions?