The Current Situation

Today, Rwanda has made an astonishing recovery from the genocides in 1994. The population is growing at a rate of around 8% per year. Rwanda only has about half of its population involved the work force.  The genocide lasted for several months but didn’t make it though the year due to the takeover of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the actions of other rebel groups. Despite the RPF taking control the Rwandan government in late 1994 some “Genocide trials began in Rwanda in December 1996” (Gale). As of May 2005, a total of 10,000 trials have taken place. Through the trials an estimated 25,000 people, ranging from the ill and elderly to the young and confused, have been acquitted of their charges which has brought many people into confession of their crimes. Even though the genocide has passed, many of its effects still linger. A UN peacekeeper that was diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) four years after the killings found himself unable to “eat, sleep or concentrate enough to read a newspaper” (Tina Rosenberg). He told the reporter that he was “in a valley at sunset, waist deep in bodies, covered in blood,’' when describing one of the scenes he saw repeatedly in his mind.