Laurent
Laurent was the genocide suspect in the Kigali Ville ingando with the injured leg mentioned in the previous section, who a camp official claimed had confessed to killing three men and a woman.
Laurent had been married but his wife and children were killed during the genoÂcide. He was a practising Catholic and had studied for one year at the National University of Rwanda in Butare. Before the genocide, Laurent was an accountant, working for traders in the main market of Kacyiru district of Kigali Ville province. I met him three times: in the ingando, on the day of his release and later, when he was living in Remera district of Kigali Ville. When I first met Laurent in the camp, he said that he was uncertain of the reception he would receive from his community when he returned. â€?Now that I have left prison', he said, â€?I'm going into a new world outside... I don't know how my neighbours will react.' He said that it would be difficult to achieve reconciliation between suspects and survivors and he feared that many of his fellow detainees had unrealisÂtic views of what reconciliation would require. â€?We need reconciliation without sentimentality', Laurent said.Reconciliation doesn't come from the sky. It comes bit by bit. It means living together, saying sorry, asking for forgiveness. It is much more than words - it is actions.[269]
When I met Laurent a second time, on the day of his release from the ingando, he again expressed uncertainty about the reception he would receive in his home community. He also described his sadness at leavÂing many of his fellow detainees who had become like his family.[270] Several weeks after his release, I met Laurent again, near his new home in Remera. He told me that, after his release, several friends took him into their house and cared for him; as a result, his leg healed quickly.
His friends were now funding his way through a computer course, and he hoped to earn a living as a computer repairman. �I want to learn new skills so that I can support myself', Laurent said. �But these skills will be wasted after gacaca if I go back to prison.' He said that he had not yet returned to the community where he committed his crimes and he would not contact anyone in his old community until he saw them at gacaca. �Gacaca is slow', he said, �so I won't see these people for a very long time. I have waited ten years for justice and I can't wait much longer. I am an old man and I don't want to wait.'[271]When asked whether he thought that the ingando lessons had been beneficial for life in the wider society, Laurent said,
I still consult my notes, not often, but sometimes. It's important to rememÂber what we learnt there. Some [detainees] will forget everything. They are the stubborn, insolent ones. They are unteachable. I'm not like them. Laurent said that his future was very uncertain and that he often feared what would happen to him. In the immediate situation, he had no money and no work. â€?There is no one to support me', he said. â€?I can't rely on my friends for much longer.' At the end of the third interview, Laurent said, â€?Sometimes I think life was better when I was in prison. I knew people there and they knew me'. Life outside of prison, he claimed, meant only loneliness and poverty.[272]
In 2006, I returned to look for Laurent in Remera. Several neighÂbours said they had not seen him for many months but there were rumours that he had left the community or died.[273] One neighbour said that Laurent had finished his computer course and therefore had probÂably found a job closer to town, but another neighbour said that was unlikely because â€?everyone uses computers in town but they get them fixed in Remera'.[274] A gacaca judge in the local jurisdiction said that Laurent's case was still pending and the judges were concerned that he had fled the community. â€?No one disappears for very long, though', he said. â€?Where can you hide in Rwanda? I'm sure he'll be brought back ’59
soon.[275]
By 2008, when I next returned to Remera, Laurent's neighbours were certain he would not be back, citing rumours that he had died in another district. One middle-aged woman said, â€?Laurent was from another place. He had moved here after leaving jail and people knew him but he had very few friends and I'm quite sure he had no family.'[276] I failed to find the friends who had paid for Laurent's computer course. The generally blase reactions from Laurent's neighbours suggested he had correctly predicted that he would not replicate in the outside world the closeness of relationÂships he had forged in prison.