Apart from its sheer brutality, the Rwandan genocide is notorious for the number of ordinary people who aided or became killers themselves. It is the main reason why every weekend since 1998, local tribunals are held in villages across the country. The aim is to uncover the truth about who did what but also to help in the healing process. Punishment is handed out for lesser crimes, but the process is more about reconciliation. It is also a forum to discover more about the tragic chain of events which led to the massacre. After the Rwandan President was killed when his plane was shot down, militant Hutu extremists embarked on a mass execution programme, starting with Tutsi aristocrats. A hundred days later, some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates had been slaughtered. Thousands fled seeking safety and shelter. But the international community largely failed to respond to the crisis in the central African country. The UN security council cut its peacekeeping force from 2,500 to 450 poorly trained and ill-equipped troops. France, however, did launch Operation Turquoise, a controversial humanitarian and military mission. But critics say the operation gave protection to the killers. To date, the International Criminal Court for Rwanda has passed sentence on 21 people. The country's jails are full with tens of thousands of suspected killers awaiting trial. Ten years on, Rwanda's truth and reconciliation process is well underway, giving many of the survivors some chance of facing the future with hope. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Genocide survivor and Genocide Memorial Site guardian Theogene Ruzindana stands close to the skulls of the people killed in the church of Kibeho, Rwanda, during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. (AFP/File/Gianluigi Guercia)