Genocide survivors still face an uncertain future.

• Author: Pavon, Beatriz
• Position: Rwanda: ten years after genocide

Tens years after the Rwandan genocide in which as many as 800,000 people lost their lives, survivors of the massacre face an uncertain future due to insufficient foreign aid and a lack of judicial redress.

Several aid programmes in Rwanda are struggling to meet the needs of survivors who, according to a 1998 survey by the Rwandan Government, total roughly half the country's population. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) helps survivors reconnect with their families and finances the education of around 2,000 children. In addition, several United Nations agencies, such as the UN Development Fund for Women, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Development Programme, have increased the Rwandan Government's ability to fund women's micro-finance projects, enabling them to earn independent income. The Government is also involved, through the Fund to Assist Survivors of the Genocide, in financing school fees and medical care, while victims' associations (see box on page 64) offer counselling, organized mourning and testimony collection.

Despite aid programmes at work in the country, many survivors and their advocates believe relief attempts have not met victims' needs, as the majority of them still live in critical conditions, coping with poverty, illness and social isolation. Alison Des Forges, Senior Advisor in the African Division of Human Rights Watch, notes that victims have "received very little concrete assistance" because, given the number of victims and the current funding levels, "there is simply not enough to take care of everyone's needs". Further, Rakiya Omaar, Director of African Rights, explains that aid programmes often only deal with one aspect of recovery, thus failing "to account for the totality of the individual or the group in need".

Beyond the shortage of meaningful assistance, Rwandans are also rebuilding their justice system to manage the 100,000 persons who participated in the 1994 killings and stand accused of related crimes. At the request of the Rwandan Government, the UN Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, to prosecute the alleged architects of the killings. At the beginning of its mandate, genocide survivors and victims' families knew little about ICTR. However, according to Ms. Des Forges, Rwandans have become more "satisfied [with the ICTR] as they see progress being made". To date, the...