KIGALI SEMINAR ON PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM
The Genocide of 1994 is a not just a memory, but a lasting tension that could be alleviated by further exploring psychological causes of civil strife in the Rwandan community. Due to fiscal and logistical constraints though, classical conflict resolution trainings in Rwanda that teach crucial conflict prevention and transformation skills use funds to train small communities individually but lack a mechanism for broader impact. In the Kigali Seminar on Peace and Conflict Resolution, members of the conflict resolution communities in the United States and Rwanda have come together to program a seminar that uniquely overcomes these constraints. Our collective objective will be achieved by annually training fifty to sixty of the brightest and most motivated young scholars Rwanda has to offer in core conflict resolution skills, and then empowering them to spread these skills across the region.

OBJECTIVE
To empower a carefully selected group of Rwandan law students with the tools to disassemble complex conflicts into manageable segments, create sustainable positive outcomes, and facilitate resolution.

To achieve this project objective, ICOP will expose the participants to:

• Tailored Mediation Trainings
• Regional Conflict Simulations
• Renowned Speakers / Trainers

The Kigali Seminar on Peace and Conflict Resolution is not to be confused with charity. Instead, its objective is to empower leaders through conflict resolution and mediation training to make the necessary changes in their own communities for a more peaceful and prosperous reality. Even though the genocide has stopped, this is not indicative of smaller strife among individuals and groups. The basic skill sets learned in the Kigali Seminar will have an extensive effect as trainees practice their new skills with families, communities, coworkers, and in government service. Through intensive simulations and renowned speakers, participants will learn the origins of conflict on the individual, domestic, and international level. They will also obtain and practice tools to analyze and disassemble complex conflicts into manageable segments to more easily facilitate resolution. In learning this process the participants will be empowered with the skills needed to develop both long term and short term conflict resolution strategies to bring a greater amount of stability to their community.

Click Here to download the Kigali Information pamphlet (PDF)>>

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EMPOWERMENT
ICOP seeks to maximize impact of the Kigali Seminar on Peace and Conflict Resolution while keeping costs low to our donors and free of charge to the trainees. That being said, it is paramount to our theory of empowerment that trainees 'earn' the right to participate by giving back to the community. Therefore, participants of the Kigali Seminar on Peace and Conflict Resolution will 'pay' for their training through the universal resource of time rather than money. For each one hour of training, a participant will commit to one hour of "Community Organizing & Practicing Peace," or a COPP Hour. The Kigali Seminar is designed to train between 50 and 60 participants for 40 hours each, so this initiative will maximize results by empowering the trainees to take action and guarantee over 2,000 hours of community service in the region. Trainees are encouraged to pay for their COPP Hours in groups by setting up mini-conflict resolution trainings for people in the general Rwandese communities.

ICOP will also provide a small stipend to UNILAK as seed money for an ICOP Regional Center for Peace. Through this center, seminar alumni will have access to conflict resolution literature and simulations, as well as the ability to track/earn COPP Hours, participate in continuing education seminars, and network with other conflict resolution practitioners.

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A BREIF HISTORY OF THE GENOCIDE
On April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying the Rwandan President was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali, killing him and the President of Burundi. Almost as if the crash was a signal, ethnic Hutu military and militia groups began rounding up and killing people of the Tutsi ethnic group. Political moderates irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds were targeted as well.

Genocide of unprecedented swiftness rapidly spread from Kigali to all corners of the country and officially left 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead at the hands of organized bands of Interahamwe (Hutu militias) and complacent citizens.

A civil war began raging simultaneously as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a military group of exiled Tutsis formed in Uganda, entered Rwanda from Uganda and Tanzania to join with a RPF battalion stationed in Kigali. In July 1994, after two months of civil war, the RPF defeated the Interhamwe. In turn, approximately two million Hutu refugees, some who participated in the genocide and fearing Tutsi retribution, fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire. The Rwandan genocide and presence of large numbers of refugees in the aftermath were major factors in the destabilization of the entire region.

RWANDA NOW
Over a decade has passed since the murder of more than 900,000 Rwandans in one of the worst genocides of the past century, and the people of Rwanda have made great progress in the healing process. Despite the best efforts of people on the ground, the physical and emotional scars are still ever present on the bodies and in the eyes of the survivors as Hutus and Tutsis attempt to shed tribal identities and become simply known as Rwandese.

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