Many Hutu perpetrators and their families who feared reprisals fled to Congo to escape from everything. By 1995, it was hard to find anybody who would admit that there was a genocide. Many people of Rwanda admitted to the Civil War and some massacres, but no genocide. In the West of Rwanda, events were seen as “tribal violence,” “ancient ethnic”and“failed state.” The extermination had been carried out for political reasons, but nobody believed it. When these things were said, the genocide was still not even over. The Hutus found that exile was tolerable in the Congo camps. The Hutu Power had time to set up a new power base and recruit new people. Many of the refugees returned home from Congo, but others continued a nomadic existence in Congo.
The government of Rwanda arrested many suspected genocidaires and about a million suspects were already awaiting trial. There were many “most wanted” suspects and they were known to be among the returning refugees. About two years after the genocide, killers and survivors were living next to each other and in the same house. The new president stated, “The Rwandan people were able to live together peacefully for six hundred years and there is no reason why they can’t live together in peace again.” The vice president said, “People can be changed. Some people can even benefit from being forgiven.” Among the people willing to forgive were orphaned girls. Months after the genocide, genocidaires murdered many of the witnesses on whose evidence they could have been convicted. The prime minister of Rwanda finally confessed to the genocide and the conspiracy to commit it. There have been over 400 death sentences after the genocide, and life in Rwanda continues to improve.
