Our country is one of the safest in the world but we still witness crimes in our societies. Crimes of violence committed by Rwandans against Rwandans.
Yesterday, September 21st violence in our communities. How can we work together?” In the discussions held at the Parliament throughout the day, it was stressed that one cannot experience peace without their neighbor experiencing peace too. Peace is simply defined as the absence of or freedom from disturbance.
Peace is characterized by tranquility. Peace has many facets making it up but it only has consistency when applied to a community.
We live in communities so most of our actions good or bad inevitably directly affect our neighbor. If a tenant in a compound where electricity is paid in groups fails to honor this engagement, this action directly affects his fellow tenants who will be obliged to fill in for him from their tight budget.
I doubt that peace will be present in this small community. This is why peace is measured not by counting violent actions in a community, but the interactions in the community. The level of trust among the people for one another.
You cannot claim that a community has peace if there is no gun violence for example, when the people cannot pass in every road of that community without fearing for their security or if there is mutual fear among the people living in that community.
We have recently been receiving reports in the media about crimes of frightening violence done in our communities, committed by people known in those communities.
Among the testimonies gathered by journalists are the ones of the neighbors of the crime perpetrator or victim and these testimonies all have something in common: there was always prior knowledge and acknowledgment of disturbance in the households where the crimes were committed.
Most of the time, the local authorities are said to have been aware of these situations. What I am sure of is that in most cases, the authorities were contacted by the victims, or by their families. Very rarely is anything reported by the neighbors before it is too late.
Let us go back in time. A little bit more than twenty years ago in Rwanda, severe segregation and oppression crimes of where being committed to the knowledge of all, starting with our direct neighbors, the countries forming the EAC. There was no effort from them to stop these crimes committed on the Rwandan territory most probably on the grounds that they weren’t concerned. None of their citizens were concerned. But this is where they were wrong.
The instability that has now shifted to the DRC destabilizing the whole EAC is a direct result of lack of early actions by our neighboring countries.
When they were ignoring the cries of the Rwandan people, they overlooked the fact that all oppressive and criminal governments fall one day, and that they invariably always flee to the neighboring countries to continue their wars; which is exactly what happened with the FDLR and with the Talibans, AL Shabah and the Islamic State.
They always flee to neighboring countries to continue fighting with the result of , was the International Day Of Peace focusing this year on “Overcoming isnatbility not only in one countries as before, but in a whole region. Neglecting to rescue your neighboring country in times of abuse is inviting chaos in your own country.
It is just a matter of time. We should learn from the mistakes made by these governments and apply the lessons in our own communities. Seeing constant violent acts perpetrated against our neighbors and keeping silent on the grounds that you are not concerned is a huge mistake. Because their problems will soon migrate to our house in one form or another.
When you see your neighbor’s house burning, you run to extinguish it because your house is at a very high risk of catching the fire too. Among of the biggest problems ravaging our country are drugs and excessive alcohol abuse.
We all as a community suffer from this whether through delinquency, being stolen from, accidents on the road cause by drunk-driving, people unable to work and pay their taxes, young people dropping out of school, etc.
When you look closely at the drug and alcohol abusers, they all come from abusive households where violence was a daily bread. This is scientific: children from violent backgrounds will most of the time emulate their parents’ behavior. And the ones who suffer from this is the whole community.
We should, as a community should always be ready to report early on to the authorities acts of violence happening near us in a bid to ensure to the children present a better future but also to ensure a better future to our community. The question that comes to mind here is: “What about privacy? Will in not be intruding in my neighbor’s personal life?”
All Rwandans have the responsibility to protect a person in danger under the elected Rwandan Constitution. Another question that can come to mind is “How do I know what I witness at my neighbor’s is dangerous?”.
All acts of physical and verbal violence regularly perpetrated against people living in the household, acts of neglect and abuse by adults towards children (abandonment, not feeding them, not allowing them to attend school, ect) and their spouse (financial support) are all dangerous acts that will in time evolve into situations out of our control.
In honor of this years’ theme for the International Peace Day, we need to be more aware of acts of violence happening next to and around us and report them for the sake of our neighbors’ future but also for the sake of our community’s peace in the long run.
KAMALIZA Raissa
Our contributor
UM– USEKE.RW
