Stories of Rwandan Women in Rebuilding the Country

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The original title was The Role of Rwandan Women in Rebuilding the Country. This is my homework I wrote for The Role of the Media in the Rwandan Genocide Course taught by professor Gerald Caplan at University for Peace, in early 2011. The class was very intense and I found myself with tears in many nights while reading stories of genocides for the class. However, at the end of the class I found remaining hopes and I noted down in my forever memory the last word professor Gerald told us ‘keep trying’. My special thanks go to professor Gerald and my Rwandan friend Celine Mukamurenzi, for inspiring me and giving me great motivation to live and work :)

The Role of Rwandan Women in Rebuilding the Country

“My family experienced genocide. I have lost my brother, my cousins, my grandparents, my uncles, my aunts, there are many. Now many things change as women are rebuilding the country. They have been remarkable improvement, many legislation reforms, even the constitution. Almost all laws have been reformed to include gender aspect. Some new ones have been also adopted. But every change has its costs: at the beginning men were not trusting the capacity of women especially in political sphere but later they have realize that women can be good politicians, diplomats, economists, doctors, police-officers, scientists, researcher, etc even better than many men. Now there is no doubt. They have seen that women can do it.” – Celine Mukamurenzi1 (2011), an ordinary woman, outlined her hope for change and peace in her hometown, Rwanda.

The small central African country of Rwanda is globally known for the 1994 genocide, the unforgettable mass murder that killed a million people in a hundred days. However, out of tragedy has come hope. Reconstruction and reconciliation have taken place by women. Remarkably, there has been recently a new historical record in Rwanda when women stepped up to nearly 50 percent of seats in its lower house of parliament.

Yes, it is not just the country where brutal genocide occurred; Rwanda is also the place where the role of women in rebuilding the country is recognized. At national and grassroots levels, Rwandan women have been at the forefront of post-genocide recovery and reconciliation. Today, in almost every sector of Rwandan life, we find a woman. It has been proved and understood that Rwandan women are indispensable to successful country rebuilding.

This paper focuses on the role of Rwandan women since before, during, and after genocide. It specially aims to discuss the role of women in rebuilding the country in the hope that lessons learned from this place will be useful for those who are fighting for change elsewhere in the world.

History of Women’s Role in Rwanda

Rwandan society has long been characterized by a patriarchal social structure that underlines the unequal power relations between men and women, boys and girls. Males become dominant and women become subordinant in the society.

Historically, in Rwandan culture, a woman’s role was in the house, a girl’s school was in the kitchen. Illiteracy rates for women were higher than for men. Not to mention that women’s role in politics and decision making was insignificant, although in the pre colonial period, Rwandan women played an important role in the country’s governance through the institution of the Queen Mother (Mutaba & Izabiliza, 2005).

Prior to the coming of colonialists and white missionaries, values such as integrity, heroism, protection of those in need and who seek protection from imminent danger, preservation of life and certain taboos like killing children and women were imprinted in the Rwandan culture. However, all these cultural values were eroded with the advent of western culture during colonization (Mutaba & Izabiliza, 2005). The gender-based discrimination and consequent inequalities were intensified by changes in the economic and social structures that were ushered in with the advent of colonial rule.

Accordingly, when Rwanda got her independence in 1962, the country had deep divisions as a result of the Belgian colonial legacy of divide and rule, and marginalization of women in the social, economic and political fields. Women’s subordination became more institutionalized. Girls’ education seemed impossible, cash crops production was in the hands of men, formal and salaried employment was almost exclusively for men and the obligation of paying taxes belonged to men. (Mutaba & Izabiliza, 2005).

At the time of the genocide, under customary law, a woman could not inherit property unless she was explicitly designated as the estate’s beneficiaries. As a result, many windows or daughters had no legal claim to the homes of their late husbands or fathers, or to their male relatives’ land or bank accounts (Caplan, 2000).

This is to say that throughout this period of history, Rwandan women were disadvantaged in all arenas – the family, education, law, politics, and commerce. However, the role of women turned changed when genocide took place in 1994.

Women in Genocide

As a result of the Rwandan genocide, among the approximate million who lost their lives, in 100 days, hundreds of thousands of women and girls were killed, although men comprised more of the deaths than women. Any Tutsi woman who survived was likely to have been raped (Layaka, 1995, cited in Sharlach, 1999). The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Rwanda, multiplying the 2,000 – 5,000 pregnancies caused by rape based on the probability that an act of rape would result in conception one time in every hundred, estimates that there were between 250,000 and 500,000 rapes (Sharlach, 1999). However, number of women who were raped wildly varies. According to testimonies given by survivors, we could conclude that every woman over the age of 12 who survived the genocide was raped (Caplan, 2000).

Nevertheless, women were not victims of violence during the genocide only; many became perpetrators against men and against other women also.

Even though there were few women in Rwandan’s political and military structures before 1994, women were among the politic elites most responsible for the genocide. What was known as the “little house” – the handful of people who plotted the Rwandan genocide – included two of Rwandan’s most prominent women, President Habyalimana’s wife and the Minister of the Family and Promotion of Women. Moreover, some of the most racist broadcasters were women (African Rights, 1995, cited in Sharlach, 1999).

Some Hutu women participated in the genocide alongside with men. They killed, tortured, informed, collaborated, and aided in communication with perpetrators. Although women represent only 2.3 percent of genocide suspects, in a society like that of Rwanda where women were symbols of caring and peace, why did so many women become murderers?

Sharlach (1999) explains that the socio-political changes in Rwandan society in the early 1990s – particularly, the threat that the Hutu majority fears from the Tutsi in exile and in Rwanda – led to the society placing a much greater emphasis on the salience of the marker of ethnicity then of sex. For the preponderance of Hutu women in Rwanda, Hutu nationalism overrode any sense of sisterhood with Tutsi women.

The extensive role of women in perpetrating the Rwandan genocide is evidently unique in recorded history, while it is difficult to derive many comparative insights from the phenomenon. However, the evidence during Rwandan genocide suggests that when women are provided with positive and negative incentives similar to those of men, their degree of participation in genocide, and the violence and cruelty they exhibit, will run closely parallel to their male counterparts (Jones, 2002).

The trauma from the 1994 Rwandan genocide was enormous. It not only killed a million people, but also left the country in complete disorder, the social fabric was destroyed. The whole society suffered displacement, there were countless numbers of orphans, family separations, broken relationships, a vulnerable population, insecurity, famine, etc. Women who survived the genocide lost husbands, children, relatives, and communities. They endured systematic rape and torture, witnessed unspeakable cruelty, and lost livelihoods and property.

The Role of Women in Rebuilding the Country

Shortly after the genocide, it was estimated that 70 percent of the Rwandan population was female. Not to mention that some 150,000 men were in the army or in jail awaiting trial. Indeed the women of Rwanda shouldered a disproportionate burden of the nation’s economic and reconstruction activities (Caplan, 2000).

However, during this desperate moment came hopes.

In their victimization and endurance, women of Rwandan immediately got up and started rebuilding their home country. They assumed non-traditional social and economic roles as heads of household, community leaders and financial providers, meeting the needs of devastated families and communities. They were the ones who picked up the pieces of a literally decimated society and began to rebuild; they buried the dead, found homes for nearly 500,000 orphans, and built shelters. The genocide forced women to think of themselves differently and in many cases develop skills they would not otherwise have acquired (Powley, 2006).

It is worth recognizing that women contributed in the rehabilitation and reconstruction process for Rwanda by participating in the construction of houses in the newly established settlements. For the first time in Rwanda’s history women started performing non-traditional tasks such as the construction of houses (Mutaba & Izabiliza, 2005). They also addressed the issue of hundreds of thousands of orphans and other non-accompanied children, who then were fostered or adopted into families.

Women even contributed within the realm of security issue. A variety of government and civil society points to women in northern and northwestern Rwanda who were instrumental in stabilizing border communities. These women are credited with convincing their husbands and sons living across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to leave rebel groups and return to Rwanda to reintegrate (Powley, 2003).

Following this further, there was a concerted effort among women’s group and in the government to address the needs of Rwandan women and to engage them in the all-important processes of reconstruction and reconciliation (Caplan, 2000).

Why women? Despite the fact the demographics were changed, circumstances of their lives and burdens they carry cause women to recognize their interdependence; such pragmatism allows them to work across ethnic lines more easily than men (Powley, 2003). There was also an assumption that women are better suited for reconstruction and reconciliation role because they are less warlike than men. Along the same line, development programs in post-conflict societies around the globe emphasized the importance of women as facilitators of ethnic reconciliation (Sharlach, 1999). They did so in Rwanda.

The transitional government that took power under the victorious Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) made gender equality a political priority, an act that appealed to foreign donors. The RPF drew its supporters from refugee camps in neighboring Kenya, Zaire, and especially Uganda, where gender politics had been an important aspect of its government (Abbot, Haerpfer & Wallace, 2008).

Rwanda in many ways represents a process of collective social learning and cross-national feminism (Britton, 2006). One can infer that the Rwandan government did not regard the aims of including women as philosophical ideas, but as necessary, practical mechanisms for reconciliation and reconstruction (Mzvondiwa, 2007). Powley (2003) remarks that the Rwandan Government’s decision to include women in the governance of the nation was based on many factors. The perceptions regarding women as “better” at reconciliation and post-conflict peace building were a strong motivation. However, the policy of inclusion also owed to the RPF’s exposure to gender equality issues in Uganda and South Africa. It is important to note the critical importance of key, high- level women within the RPF, and the influence they had in terms of women’s participation in post-conflict.

Women in Policy Making

Against this backdrop the Rwandan government put forward a bold gender equality initiative, culminating in the 2003 constitution, which gave women a 30 percent quota in decision making organs, based on the call for women’s participation which was made more than two decades ago in the United Nations Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. In addition, a Ministry of Gender was set up; the first of its kind in Africa (Abbot, Haerpfer & Wallace, 2008).

The use of quotas as a gender equality strategy was something that many African governments had used, but Rwanda went the furthest. The issue of women in Rwanda achieved worldwide acclaim in 2003 when women were elected as 48.75 percent of the representatives to the Rwandan lower house of parliament, making it the parliament with the highest proportion of female deputies in the world (Abbot, Haerpfer & Wallace, 2008).

Simultaneously, the Government of Rwanda demonstrated its will to give women the trust and role of rebuilding the nation by appointing them to all positions of leadership and responsibility in society. For example, women are serving in the executive, legislative and judiciary arms of the government. It is worth noting that the President of the Supreme Court of Rwanda has been a woman and the minister of justice has also been a woman, as well as the executive secretary of the Gacaca courts. In addition, the government has also attempted to address women’s concerns and gender implications in their policy planning (Mutaba & Izabiliza, 2005).

Another mechanism for supporting women is a parallel system of women’s councils that extend from the bottom up in Rwandan society as a way of putting forward gender issues. However, in fact, they were initially instruments of top-down state policy, nevertheless, what started off as top-down policy started to have a more general effect on the population with time (Abbot, Haerpfer & Wallace, 2008).

Challenges

While there is no question that the government of Rwanda is committed to gender inclusiveness and to support the role of women, however, the situation of the majority of Rwandan women today remains very poor.

According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Report 2007, achievements of political representation have not yet translated into major differences for most women. It also points out that women are more likely to be living in poverty than men and are underrepresented in salaried employment (Abbot, Haerpfer & Wallace, 2008).

At the same time the patriarchal attitudes are still entrenched in the society. The significant strides in gender equality at the top end of Rwandan society also meet with entrenched traditional patriarchal attitudes. Social hierarchy and inequality still remained. The emergence of an educated stratum of women at the top in business and politics does not mean that the position of the great majority of Rwandan women has improved (Abbot, Haerpfer & Wallace, 2008). At the top are a small number of women, usually educated abroad, at the bottom are majority of Rwandan women who cannot reach opportunities created by policies.

Why gender reforms have been so difficult to implement? The problems facing Rwandan women are vast and many. Per their research, Abbott, Haerpfer and Wallace (2009) found that the three most important issues affecting Rwandan women are: poverty and unequal work; education; and gender-based violence which are still pervasive in the society. The majority of women in Rwandan society struggle with heavy workloads and the threat of violence and although there have been brave efforts to improve the educational participation of girls, many of them do not even get the basic schooling that is available. Thus, it is difficult to see how they can play an active role in the society and the political culture (Abbot, Haerpfer & Wallace, 2008).

Way Forward

In today’s Rwanda, women remain a demographic majority, comprising more than 50 percent of the population and essentially contributing to the nation. While the outside world sees and even acknowledges the large number of women in Rwanda parliament, realities on the ground have brought questions to women: ‘what needs to be done to strengthen the role of women in rebuilding the country?’ and ‘how far and how sustainable can gender policies work if the general population are not backing up them?’

Education is a hope for in the future as the number of educated girls is growing. Another institution that can contribute to the role of women is media, by continually promoting gender equality – change in social norms may happen.

What is sure is that sustainable change will take place in generations, and certainly, it has to be with heart and hard work.

“After graduation, I will go back in Rwanda and give my contribution to the country development. I wish I should contribute in improving the education sector to make the country more competitive at regional, and why not international level. Just being courageous and work hard to change my own history, give the orientation to my life since nobody else will do it for me.” – Celine Mukamurenzi, an ordinary woman, outlined her future for change in Rwanda.

__________________________
Celine Mukamurenzi was studying a 20 Masters in Peace Education, University for Peace, Costa Rica.

References

Abbott, P., Haerpfer, C., & Wallace, C. (2008). Woman in Rwandan Politics and Society. International Journal of Sociology, vol.38, no.4, 2008-9, pp.11-25.

Britton, H.E. (2006, March 22). Gender Quotas, Electoral Strategies, and State Feminism in Africa. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Town & Country Resort and Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA.

Caplan, G. (2000). Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide. Report of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and the Surrounding Events. Addis Ababa: Organisation for African Unity (OAU), 2000.

Izabiliza, J. (2003). The role of women in reconstruction: experience of Rwanda.

Jones, A. (2008). Gender Inclusive: Essays on violence, men and feminist international relations. New York: Routledge.

Mutamba, J., & Izabiliza, J. (2005, May). The Role of Women in Reconciliation and Peace Building in Rwanda: Ten Years After Genocide: 1994-2004 Contribution, Challenges and Way Forward. Kigali: National Unity and Reconciliation Commission.

Mzvondiwa, C.N. (2007). The Role of Women in the Reconstruction and Building of Peace in Rwanda: Peace prospects for the Great Lakes Region. African Security Review, vol 16, no. 1, pp. 99-106.

Powley, E. (2004). Strengthening Governance: The Role of Women in Rwanda’s Transition – A Summery. United Nation.

Powley, E. (2006). Rwanda: The Impact of WomenLegislators on Policy Outcomes Affecting Children and Families. Unicef.

Sharlach, L. (1999). Gender and Genocide in Rwanda: women as agents and objects of genocide. Journal of Genocide Research (1999), 1(3), 387-399.

Natural Resources, Development and Democracy

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From the Beginning

Located in the capital city of Thailand, but my house looked pretty much like bamboo-hut in rural area. It was many years that I grew up in the house with no tap water and no electricity. Everyday my mother, my sister and I had to walk for half kilometer to the river bank and bring back home some water for cooking and cleaning. It was joyful time, I remember, seeing all activities altogether along the river made me feel like we were not lonely in the world, we had friends.

When rainy season came, we did not need to go to the river bank. My father had ways to save water from the sky. Unlike water from the river, we did not have to boil rain water before we drank. I remember how much I liked drinking that ‘sky water’, it tasted really sweet, real sweet.

Just before I started going to middle school, tap water and electricity came to my house. As a teenager, I enjoyed having the first television and a new toilet very much; I went to the river bank no more. However, sometimes the tap water and electricity in our house went off. I could feel how frustrated my father was when seeing that just across the street there were bigger houses with never ran out of water and electricity. And I did not understand why.

I Met Them on the Street in Bangkok

My first understand came to me when I was in the first year of undergraduate school. I met them on the street in Bangkok, in front of the government’s house which I had to pass by every day.

The street was blocked by the protesters calling themselves ‘Assembly of the Poor’. I got off the bus, walked through the crowd seeing that there were mostly old people on the protest site. An old lady saw question in my eyes, she came to me saying that all her children had gone to work in the big cities as there was no job anymore in her hometown. And the conversation continued.

It was “Pak Moon Dam” that brought her far away from home in the Northeastern to the capital city. Without agreement from local people, the dam was built in her hometown in order to produce electricity (which it is not now functioning as it was claimed). Ever since the dam came to the Moon River, all fishes had gone, the fishery was dead, her land had been under the flood for months every year. “I am not asking the government to destroy the dam, I just want someone to open the gates of the dame just to let the fishes come back to the river when the fishery season comes” said the old lady “we need food to survive”.

I also learned that Pak Moon Dam was one in many dams that caused people suffering. Moreover, I was so sure that electricity in my house travelled from one of these dams. And I came to understand that to keep the city bright, some people’s lives had to be sacrificed for us.

Water, Farm and Market

There were much more people, much more than I had imagined, suffering from the error development. I had learned more on that reality as I grew up.

One year after I knew Pak Moon Dam, I got to know the biggest dam in my country. Bhumipol Dam was built on the Ping River in Tak province, known as the most successful investment in the century. Unfortunately, it had very little water at the time. From what I heard, since the dam was built, many farmers had been told to grow rice according to the water schedule from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. At that moment they were told not to grow rice even though it was their usual time to do so.

I was there to meet some farmers living in upper part of the dam. They still survived from the rice in their stock, but it would not be longer. Sooner they would have to start finding loan by exchanging their lands with it. And no, they had no plan for demonstration in Bangkok, because the name of the dam is given after the name of their beloved king.

At the same time, in the lower part of the dam, I acknowledged that my grandparents were still able to work in their farm with water from the Bhumipol Dam. However, they did not grow rice like they did year before, they said because of the price of rice in the market was too law. Instead they grew some plants that needed and sold better in the market.

Equally sad, my grandparents did not have more money than those farmers in the upstream. Once they sold the product in the market they had to spend that income to buy rice to eat, furthermore, they had to pay back very expensive loan they got for buying chemical fertilizer. After all, they had nothing left and started talking about selling the land as well. It became an ugly circle.

I came to think that if my grandparents grew the rice, at least they could have kept it for the household all year. Why did they let the market tell them what to grow? Should people think about making food before making money?

And I was so sure that the Thai society and the government agencies, namely the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, made a big mistake by throwing the farm into the market. Since that moment, I strongly believe that, water and agriculture should be completely out of the market.

From Mountain to Ocean

I have met them more and more, the poor people who suffer from all kinds of development projects in the name of national development.

My profession took me round the country where I could see from mountain to ocean that people were fighting for the right to access natural resources in order to bring back their livelihoods.

Among those are people from the communities around Songkhla Lake, the largest natural lake in the country, located on the Malay Peninsula in the Southern Thailand. The lake has known to be home of millions people as it has produced human basic needs, maintained livelihoods and supported southern regional economy for long time

I was there years ago when the issue of decadence was brought up to the Thai public as it was affecting not only people’s lives but also so-called tourism. I was impressed to see the diverse communities around Songkhla Lake; the forest community, the farming community, the fishery community. Before development projects came to the lake, these different communities used to co-exist peacefully. Without money, they all survived with the traditional trade by exchanging forest products, rice, fishes to each other. It became the culture of ‘forest-field-fishery’ for hundreds years. Sadly, after the dam, the modern agriculture, the fishery industry, and the market came, things had changed and then came the dispute over the control of resources while those resources were dramatically decreasing both in quality and quantity.

I was neither an anti-development, nor anti-capitalism. On one hand I thought that development in capitalism way became very cruel to human being, especially to those who had less or no power. On the other hand, I thought that the idea of bringing all back to community was too romanticized. But I had no knowledge to think of anything. The only thing I could think of, as media, was writing, telling the Thai public that what kind of the society we were living in. I was hoping that once we acknowledge and aware of causes and consequences, we would be able to do something together.

But I did not know what we could do. Thus when some of my readers asked me what we should do, I had no answer for them.

I Do Not Have An Answer, But They May…

It was years after that I thought I may saw a possible answer. Three years ago in a community in the Southern Thailand, my office went there to run a citizen media workshop for local people. The aim was to give them some tools hoping that they would be able to raise their voices to the public, as they were fighting to a development project that was about to be implemented in the area.

The conflict was more complicated than I had thoughts. The community did not fight with the investors and the state only, but also among themselves. Some resident wanted the project to come as they hoped that would be more jobs for local people. Some resident did not want the project as they believe that the project would destroy the ocean which would result in the loss of fishery. The community was divided and became falling apart. Small arms were used and conflict turned violent.

In the workshop there were two sides of people learning how to shoot the video and make a story. But nobody could manage them to produce any story as they could not come to agreement. However, after long process of dialogue, they came together with one story at the end. It was not a story targeting the audience outside saying that how good or how bad the development project was, but a story for talking among themselves. It was a simply beautiful story about a man who woke up every morning in the community, walked a few steps to the beach and caught mackerel fishes by naked hands as the sun was rising.

To me it was just a lovely story, but for them the message was very powerful. It brought back what the community shared as common value. Since then, they started to come back to talk again. Even though right now the conflict is still ongoing, but there is no report on using violence in the area anymore.

Looking around Thailand these days, I can see many disputes over natural resources that turned to violent conflict. I still do not have an answer how we can get out of it, but maybe they do. I mean, they, who were born, have lived and now are fighting for their lives…

Where Do We Go from Here?

Today I am learning that environmental conflicts or natural resource conflicts are extremely complicated and involve so many parties. As globalization has brought about great changes everywhere, community is no longer standing alone. People, community, national, global are all inter-connected. I have realized that we can no longer just say no to development; we must find the way to live with it. Meanwhile, global problem like nature disaster, environmental change are coming to knock on our door and there is no way we can escape without our heads and hearts together. What are we going to do when all sources seem to be subjected to great conflict?

We have talked about sustainability. What does sustainable development or sustainable management look like? I have heard about it but never really seen the face. However, one thing I can see is that sustainable development has to be in all sectors’ hands, not only in one hand. It is too easy just to blame on government, capitalist, or market. People are no longer that passive to leave their lives in those hands. I believe that democracy could be used as road, as process. I mean, the kind of participatory democracy that never leaves the poor (of power) behind.

Where do we go from here? How do I see possible collaboration, management and sustainability? As my little heart can think of is that before we move forward, we have to come together as a whole. Since we never asked ourselves and never come to agree on how we would like our society to be, agricultural – industrial – utopia commune or whatever. Should we start dialogue on it? And of course, I am talking about dialogue as a whole society, in all level, not only among the super power. We do need democracy now.

I dream things that never were

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It’s been so long since I blogged last time. There have been many changes in my life, including being a student again, traveling across the world, learning something, forgetting something, gaining knowledge – losing wisdom, and losing my love ones in unexpected manner.

Here I am, back to letter again…and I want to write.

Just changed the look of this blog a little bit, from purple liberty moonbeam in early morning, to the footprint in the bright daylight. Hope it brings my mind to the day :)

Also I explain my blog with my favorite quote from George Bernard Shaw. “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’.

Because I am dreaming things that never were :)

the pervious version of this blog. love it so much, but it's time to change :)

The Paper Crane’s Journey

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It is a bright morning when we visit the El Carmen school. Two weeks after the Escazú landslide, which killed 23 residents, including three little students from the same class, the school is open again for 320 pupils, ages 5 – 12.

Imagining how frightened they are, my friends and I wish to introduce them to origami, the art of paper-folding, in the hope that it might help them to heal their minds. We sit down in one corner, watching the children enjoy the entertaining activity, which makes them smile and laugh again. Three paper cranes are made, first for practice, which we leave in the paper basket on the floor.

Half an hour later, the misty wind starts to blow. A female teacher walks by; she greets us politely. The three little paper cranes are then caught by her sad eyes. A moment later, the teacher softly holds the cranes in her hands.

1.

In 1955, 55 years ago, a tiny paper crane was folded by Sadako Sasaki, one of the survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing of August 6, 1945. Sadako was a twelve- year-old girl who never gave up hope. She made paper cranes from gift and medicine wrappers while dying of leukaemia. She believed that when she completed folding 1,000 cranes, she would recover.

Sadako died on Oct. 25, 1955. She never finished the 1,000 paper cranes. However, her belief that ‘the paper crane will enable you to understand other people’s feelings, as if they are your own’ is still alive. Her family and friends helped accomplish her dream by folding the remaining paper cranes, which were buried with Sadako at her funeral.

Since then, the paper crane has become a symbol of peace. In Asia, people say that folding 1,000 paper cranes makes a person’s wish come true. For Sadako, the paper crane gave her hope. Even after her death, the paper crane still keeps her hope alive.

2.

In 2005, 50 years after Sadako died, a thousand tiny paper cranes were folded by a group of poor children, the survivors of the December 25, 2004 tsunami that hit the south of Thailand. The village with no name located in the Phang Nga province was swept away by the giant waves. It was nine months after the tsunami when I arrived there with the village’s first volunteer team; not many adults were seen in the village – I saw mostly children in the small bamboo houses. “We were lucky because we were on the study camp up on the mountain, but our parents were gone with the waves”, I was told by them.

With muddy hands, around 15 village children with no names, were folding paper cranes from old newspapers that they got from the dumping area. They hung many paper cranes in their rebuilt houses. “I want the cranes to send a message to my mother telling her that I just want to see her body and give her a hug for the last time,” a girl told me with a smile on her face. “I will surely finish folding 1,000 paper cranes and make a wish that helps me to get my father’s land back from the local government someday” a growing boy shared this dream with me while folding his first paper crane.

According to the village leader, the paper crane was introduced to these children by a group of tourists from Japan who passed by this area during their journey to the famous beaches nearby. “I do not believe in the magic like that, but I love to see our children became alive again after the biggest loss of their lives”. Then, I saw a light in his eyes, and I believe that those paper cranes gave him hope as well.

After a month, just before I left the village with no name, a few girls ran after my volunteer team. They handed us 15 paper cranes without a word. I held one of the cranes all the way home.

3.

The teacher gently holds three paper cranes in her hands. While the rain seems to be around the corner and the sunlight is fading away, we are about to leave the El Carmen school, to come back another day. The teacher asks if she can have the three paper cranes.

She is one of among 16 teachers who come from a different area, which is safer than Escazú. They are working in this school, located about 300 metres away from where the disaster happened. Moreover, we are informed that, according to the geologist, there is another part of the mountain that still needs to come down. It has been stopped at the moment, but could fall down any moment.

Despite knowing the great danger, none of the teachers want to leave the school. They come to school every day and work longer than regular hours, with the hope of bringing their pupils back to class again.

These teachers remain here to encourage people, according to the director of the school. They know that if they leave, all the people here who have nowhere to go will lose hope.

Activities are still going on and the kids are making noise in playground. She walks us quietly to the classroom, which she is in charge of. We enter the room and see the altar dedicated to the three dead children. I suddenly become speechless as I touch the Lilly flowers, with their sweet, sad smell on the altar. The teacher puts the three paper cranes on the altar before sharing with us her memories of the three little kids who are no longer here. She is crying; one of us starts to cry also. We finally say goodbye. I ask her for a hug.

As we are hugging each other and I am about to say something to comfort her, she instead pats my back and says thank you, again and again.

As I am leaving the room, I look at the altar for the last time. Someone states that the three little cranes made the altar look different – it came alive.  And without saying anything further, we know that what makes things different in this school is the courage of all the teachers.

In 2010, 55 years after Sadako died, hope is still alive in the world, and I find it in Escazú.

………………………………….

In the memory of those who lost their lives in Escazú landslide, Costa Rica, 2010.

Please see more @ Costa Rica Landslide Awareness Project. I hope we can do something for all who are living in risk areas around the world.

นักรบสันติวิธี “เสื้อแดง”

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ที่มา : มติชนออนไลน์  วันที่ 26 มีนาคม พ.ศ. 2553

นักรบสันติวิธี “เสื้อแดง”

โดย ชัยวัฒน์ สถาอานันท์ คณะรัฐศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยธรรมศาสตร์ ประธานคณะทำงานยุทธศาสตร์สันติวิธี, สกว.

ความขัดแย้งทางการเมืองที่กำลังครอบคลุมสังคมไทยขณะนี้ ไม่ใช่เรื่องจะแก้ไขได้ง่าย ข้าพเจ้าเห็นว่าที่ยากเป็นเพราะ

ข้อแรก ผู้คนในสังคมขัดกันทั้งในเรื่องเป้าหมายทางการเมือง คือคนพวกหนึ่งอยากเห็นรัฐบาลที่เข้มแข็งมีเสถียรภาพ ใช้อำนาจเด็ดขาดตอบสนองความต้องการของผู้คนพลเมืองได้รวดเร็ว ขณะที่อีกฝ่ายหนึ่งเห็นว่ารัฐบาลที่มีอำนาจมากเกินไป เป็นปัญหาทั้งต่อสิทธิเสรีภาพของสามัญชนและสถาบันสังคมต่างๆ ที่ดำรงอยู่มานาน

ข้อสอง สังคมไทยกำลังขัดกันในเรื่องวิธีการได้มาซึ่งผู้ครองอำนาจรัฐ เพราะพวกหนึ่งเห็นการเลือกตั้งเป็นคำตอบสุดท้ายของระบอบประชาธิปไตยแบบมีตัวแทนว่าใครควรครองอำนาจรัฐ แต่อีกฝ่ายหนึ่งเห็นว่า การเลือกตั้งเป็นเพียงส่วนหนึ่งของความเป็นประชาธิปไตยเท่านั้น และไม่ใช่วิธีการที่สมบูรณ์พร้อมในการคัดว่าใครควรเป็นผู้ครองอำนาจรัฐ

ข้อสาม ในหลายปีมานี้ความขัดแย้งทั้งเป้าหมายและวิธีการได้คลี่ไปคลุมความขัดแย้งในเชิงจินตนาการความเป็นไทยในสังคม เพราะได้ผนวกรวมเอาปัญหาอื่นๆ เข้ามา ไม่ว่าจะเป็นเรื่องความภักดีหรือความรักชาติ จนกลายเป็นความพยายามช่วงชิง “ความเป็นไทย” และความรักในสิ่งต่างๆ ที่ดูจะถูกใช้นิยามความเป็นไทยเข้าไว้ด้วย

ขณะเดียวกันการเผชิญหน้ากันระหว่างผู้ชุมนุมเรียกร้องให้ “ยุบสภา” และฝ่ายรัฐบาลซึ่งมีหน้าที่ดูแลอำนวยความสงบในบ้านเมือง แม้จะส่งผลต่อผู้คนในกรุงเทพฯ อย่างหลีกเลี่ยงไม่ได้

แต่ก็ดำเนินไปด้วย “สันติวิธี” ซึ่งน่าจะเป็นเพราะฝ่ายรัฐบาลก็มีความเป็นเอกภาพในทางการจัดการกับการชุมนุมสูงมาก ในขณะที่ฝ่ายผู้ชุมนุมก็มีระบบการจัดการมวลชนของตนได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ

กล่าวได้ว่า สังคมไทยวันนี้กำลังเดินทางอยู่ในกระบวนการความขัดแย้งโดยฝ่ายหลักๆ ที่เกี่ยวข้องประกาศชัดว่า ฝ่ายตนใช้ “สันติวิธี”

แต่ทั้งสองฝ่ายมีบทบาทหน้าที่ไม่เหมือนกัน เพราะฝ่ายประท้วงใช้ “สันติวิธี” เพื่อสื่อสารกดดันให้รัฐบาลยอมยุบสภาหรือลาออก แต่ฝ่ายเจ้าหน้าที่รัฐใช้ “สันติวิธี” ในขอบเขตกฎหมายหลายฉบับเพื่อควบคุมพื้นที่รักษาความสงบเรียบร้อย เพื่อให้รัฐบาลทำงานของตนต่อไปได้

ด้วยเหตุนี้จึงจำเป็นต้องเรียนรู้และตั้งคำถามกับสิ่งที่เรียกว่า “สันติวิธี”

เช่นการสละเลือดกดดันรัฐบาลของผู้ชุมนุมก็ไม่ใช่สันติวิธีที่ไม่เคยเกิดขึ้นมาก่อน (อย่างที่นักข่าวฝรั่งคิดและหนังสือพิมพ์ไทยนำมาแปลเอาไว้เมื่อไม่นานมานี้) เพราะการใช้เลือดเป็นอาวุธสันติวิธีก็เคยทำกันในยุโรป เมื่อครั้งนักศึกษาเซอร์เบียก็ใช้วิธีคล้ายกันนี้ประท้วงรัฐบาลคอมมิวนิสต์ของ  Milosevic ช่วงปี 1996-1997 เพราะก่อนหน้านั้นภรรยาของ Milosevic ประกาศว่า พรรคคอมมิวนิสต์ยูโกสลาเวียขึ้นเสวยอำนาจด้วยเลือด (คือการปฏิวัติสมัย Tito) ถ้าจะไปก็ต้องไปด้วยเลือด (คือต้องต่อสู้เสียชีวิตเลือดเนื้อกันไปก่อน)

นักศึกษาเซอร์เบียผู้ประท้วงด้วยสันติวิธีจึงโต้ตอบด้วยการสละเลือดของตน แล้วจึงเอาถุงเลือดไปบริจาคยังที่ทำการพรรคคอมมิวนิสต์ พร้อมกับคำถามต่อการอยู่ในตำแหน่งของ Milosevic

แต่คงต้องตั้งคำถามเช่นกันว่า การบริจาคเลือด การเทเลือด การสาดเลือด ไม่เหมือนกัน ทุกอย่างถือเป็น “สันติวิธี” เท่ากันหรือไม่?

หรือการกระทำดังกล่าวต่อสถานที่สาธารณะและสถานที่ส่วนบุคคลต่างกันหรือไม่?

ผู้คนภาคส่วนต่างๆ ควรครุ่นคิดหรือไม่ว่า อะไรควรเป็นขอบเขตของการใช้ “สันติวิธี” ในสังคมไทย?

เพื่อให้สังคมไทยได้ร่วมกันคิดถึง “สันติวิธี” ได้กว้างขวางขึ้น ข้าพเจ้าอยากชวนให้คิดถึงขบวนการสันติวิธีที่สำคัญที่สุดขบวนหนึ่งในคริสต์ศตวรรษที่ยี่สิบ

ขบวนการนี้คือ “นักรบสันติวิธีเสื้อแดง”

ทางภาคตะวันออกและตอนใต้ของอัฟกานิสถาน และชายแดนภาคตะวันตกเฉียงเหนือของปากีสถานในปัจจุบัน มีคนกลุ่มหนึ่งรู้จักกันทั่วไปในคำเรียกหาว่า “ชาวปาทาน” ลักษณะเฉพาะของคนเหล่านี้คือ มีภาษาของตนเอง ยึดถือกฎแห่งเกียรติและศักดิ์ศรีที่ดำรงกับเผ่าพันธุ์ของตนก่อนยุคอิสลาม และนับถือมั่นคงในศาสนาอิสลาม คนพวกนี้ต่อต้านการรุกรานจากภายนอกอย่างกล้าหาญไม่ยอมแพ้ ไม่ว่าจะเป็นกองทัพเกรียงไกรของอเล็กซานเดอร์มหาราชเมื่อสองพันปีที่แล้ว หรือจักรวรรดิโซเวียตเมื่อปลายคริสต์ศตวรรษที่ยี่สิบ

ในช่วงปี ค.ศ. 1930 ถึง 1947 มีกลุ่มชาวปาทานรวมตัวกันใช้สันติวิธีต่อต้านการยึดครองอินเดียของอังกฤษ เป็นขบวนการที่เรียกว่า Khudai Khidmatgar

ขบวนการของชาวปาทานที่ต่อสู้ด้วยสันติวิธีนี้มีเครื่องแบบสีแดงจึง มักเรียกกันว่า “นักรบเสื้อแดง” (red shirts)

ผู้นำขบวนการสันติวิธีมุสลิมของชาวปาทานในภาคตะวันตกเฉียงเหนือของอนุทวีปในเวลานั้นคือ Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988) หรือ “Badshah Khan” และชาวอินเดียในขบวนการของคานธีเรียกเขาว่า “คานธีชายแดน” (the Frontier Gandhi)

คำเรียกหาเช่นนี้แม้ในสายตาจะชาวโลกจะเป็นการให้เกียรติ แต่ควรเข้าใจว่า ข่านได้พัฒนาแนวคิดสันติวิธีด้วยตนเองโดยมิได้ขึ้นต่อความคิดสันติวิธีของคานธีมาตั้งแต่แรก (Mohammad Raqib 2000: 125)

อับดุล กัฟฟาร์ ข่าน เรียกร้องให้ชาวปาทานเข้าร่วมขบวนการสันติวิธีต่อสู้กับอังกฤษโดยกล่าว ว่า

“เด็กๆ ของเราครึ่งหนึ่งไม่สบาย โรงพยาบาลก็มีไว้สำหรับคนอังกฤษเท่านั้น ประเทศนี้เป็นของเรา เงินก็ของเรา ทุกอย่างเป็นของเรา แต่เราต้องอยู่ที่นี่ ทั้งหิวทั้งหนาว เราไม่มีอะไรจะกิน ไม่มีบ้านคุ้มหัว พวกเขาทำถนน pukka เพราะพวกเขาอยากใช้เอง ถนนพวกนี้สร้างด้วยเงินทองของพวกเรา ถนนของพวกเขาก็อยู่ที่ลอนดอนโน่น นี่มันถนนของเรา แต่เรากลับไม่ได้รับอนุญาตให้ใช้เดิน เขายั่วยุให้พวกฮินดูสู้กับมุสลิม…ให้พวกซิกข์รบกับมุสลิม เวลานี้ทั้งฮินดู ซิกข์ และมุสลิมก็ต้องทุกข์ทรมาน ใครกันที่เป็นผู้กดขี่เรา ใครกันที่คอยสูบเลือดเราจนแห้ง ก็พวกอังกฤษนั่นแหละ”

Gurfaraz Khan ชายชราอายุ 95 ปี ซึ่งเคยฟังคำกล่าวปลุกเร้าของข่านในครั้งนั้นก่อนจะสมัครเข้าร่วมขบวนการนักรบเสื้อแดงกล่าวกับ Banerjee ผู้เขียน The Pathans Unarmed  ตีพิมพ์ในปี 2000 ว่า “ข่านบอกพวกเราว่า ที่แผ่นดินของเราตกอยู่ใต้ปกครองของพวกอังกฤษเป็นเรื่องไม่ถูกต้อง…ท่านชี้ให้เห็นความไม่เป็นธรรมเมื่อลูกหลานของเราต้องวิ่งตีนเปล่าขณะที่ลูกหลานพวกเขาแต่งกายเต็มยศ…พวกเขาเอาขนมปังมาเตะเล่นยังได้เลย แต่พวกเราอดอยากไม่พอกิน”

มักเชื่อกันว่าที่สันติวิธีของคานธีเอาชนะอังกฤษได้ เพราะอังกฤษเป็นผู้ดี ใช้วิธีอารยะในการปกครองอินเดีย เมื่อเร็วๆ นี้ข้าพเจ้าฟังรายการสนทนาทางวิทยุรายการหนึ่งก็ได้ยินความเห็น ทำนองนี้

แต่ความเชื่อเช่นนี้เป็นมายาคติ เพราะที่สำคัญอังกฤษไม่เพียงยึดครองและขูดรีดอินเดีย แต่จัดการกับฝ่ายเรียกร้องเอกราชด้วยสันติวิธีโดยการจับกุมคุมขัง ทุบตี บังคับใช้แรงงานและบางครั้งก็ฆ่าเสีย ดังตัวอย่างการสังหารหมู่ที่เมืองอมฤตสารโดยคำสั่งของนายพลไดเยอร์ที่ทำให้ผู้ประท้วงด้วยสันติวิธีเสียชีวิตกว่า 300 คน

ในกรณีของเขตชายแดนตะวันตกเฉียงเหนือ กองกำลังอังกฤษยิงใส่นักรบสันติวิธีมุสลิม สังหารนักรบเสื้อแดงเหล่านี้กว่า 300 คน และมีผู้บาดเจ็บอีกกว่าพันคนที่เมืองโคหัต ในปี ค.ศ.1932 (Ashe 1969: 114)

นักรบสันติวิธีมุสลิม สมาชิก Khudai Khidmatgar คนหนึ่งชื่อ Khalam Khan กล่าวว่า

“เราถูกทุบตีหลายครั้งหลายคราว แต่ไม่เคยโต้ตอบกลับเลย ฉันเคยสาบานว่า จะไม่ใช้ความรุนแรง Badshah Khan อธิบายให้พวกเราฟังว่า เรากำลังทำสงครามกับพวกอังกฤษโดยใช้สันติวิธีและความอดกลั้น…และเราก็เชื่อเขา เราทำตามเขา มีอยู่ครั้งหนึ่งนายตำรวจอังกฤษถามฉันว่าทำไมพวกเราทำตาม Badshah Khan เขาถามว่า ‘มีคนจ้างให้แกทำใช่ไหม?’ ฉันก็ตอบว่า ‘ไม่มีใครจ้างหรอก เรายังต้องเอาขนมปังแห้งจากบ้านมากินเองเลย แล้วก็จะไปกับ Badshah Khan ร่วมกันขับไล่คุณออกจากประเทศของเรา’ นายตำรวจตบหลังฉันเบาๆ” (Banerjee 2000: 122)

การที่นักรบสันติวิธีมุสลิมเหล่านี้สามารถเผชิญกับความรุนแรงด้วยสันติวิธีได้เป็นเพราะปัจจัยหลายประการ ที่สำคัญคือ การจัดองค์กร และมีวินัยที่เข้มงวดไม่ต่างอะไรจากวินัยในกองทัพ นักรบสันติวิธีมุสลิม Khudai Khidmatgar (ข้ารับใช้พระเป็นเจ้า) ในสังกัดของอับดุล กัฟฟาร์ ข่าน ทุกคนต้องปฏิญาณตนเมื่อจะเข้าเป็นสมาชิกว่า

o ข้าฯเป็นข้ารับใช้พระเป็นเจ้า และเพราะพระองค์ไม่ประสงค์การรับใช้ใดๆ การรับใช้สิ่งที่พระองค์สร้างขึ้นก็คือการรับใช้พระองค์ ข้าฯจึงสาบานว่าจะรับใช้มนุษยชาติในนามของพระเป็นเจ้า

o จะไม่ใช้ความรุนแรงและไม่แก้แค้น

o จะยกโทษให้คนที่กดขี่และโหดร้ายต่อตน

o จะไม่ทะเลาะเบาะแว้งให้ร้ายกัน

o จะเลิกประเพณีปฏิบัติที่ต่อต้านสังคม

o จะดำเนินชีวิตอย่างเรียบง่าย

o จะเป็นผู้มีมรรยาทงดงาม

o จะสละเวลาวันละสองชั่วโมงให้กับงานบริการสังคม

o จะไม่เกรงกลัวภัยอันใดและพร้อมจะเสียสละได้ทุกอย่าง

ในทางประวัติศาสตร์ ขบวนการนักรบเสื้อแดงของ Badshah Khan ก็แตกต่างจากกลุ่มขบวนการอื่นๆ เช่น กลุ่ม Jama’at-I-Islami ของ Maududi หรือ Tablighi-Jama’at ของ Muhammad Ilyas อย่างน้อยสามข้อ คือ

ข้อแรก ขบวนการนักรบสันติวิธีมุสลิมของข่านเป็นขบวนการที่มิได้จำกัดอยู่เฉพาะสมาชิกมุสลิม แต่มีชาวฮินดูและชาวซิกข์เป็นสมาชิกอยู่ด้วย

ข้อสอง ขบวนการนี้มิได้เชื้อเชิญผู้คนให้เข้าร่วมเพื่อทำให้ตนเป็นมุสลิมที่ดีขึ้น แต่เพื่อต่อสู้กับเจ้าอาณานิคมชาวอังกฤษ

และข้อสุดท้าย ขบวนการนักรบสันติวิธีมุสลิมของข่านมิได้มุ่งจะสร้างชุมชนท้องถิ่นบนฐานของตัวอย่างสังคมมุสลิมที่บริสุทธิ์ในยุคเริ่มแรกของอิสลามเช่นขบวนการอื่นๆ

แต่กล่าวได้ว่า ขบวนการนักรบมุสลิมเสื้อแดงนี้ต่อสู้กับเจ้าอาณานิคมด้วยสันติวิธี โดยมิได้ย่อหย่อนลดทอนศรัทธาความเชื่อในเดชานุภาพสูงสุดของพระผู้เป็นเจ้า ความเมตตาปรานีอันไร้ขอบเขตของพระองค์ และลักษณะสากลของศาสนาอิสลาม

ในทัศนะของคานธี ขบวนการนักรบเสื้อแดงสันติวิธีของอับดุล กัฟฟาร์ ข่าน นี้แหละคือขบวนการสันติวิธีที่แท้จริง ซึ่งคานธีเรียกว่า “สันติวิธีของคนกล้า”
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หมายเหตุ-โปรดพิจารณาความละเอียดในเรื่องนี้ได้จาก ชัยวัฒน์ สถาอานันท์, “ต้านอธรรมและความตาย: ประสบการณ์นักรบสันติวิธีมุสลิม”ใน วารสารสงขลานครินทร์ ฉบับสังคมศาสตร์และมนุษยศาสตร์ ปีที่ 13 ฉบับที่ 3 (กรกฎาคม-กันยายน 2550), หน้า 301-314