After such intense violence, some healing by surviving members of the victim group may facilitate and perhaps be required for forgiveness. In turn, forgiveness may further healing.
Genocide has a deep psychological impact on surviving members of a group.
Perpetrators are also wounded by their own actions. In Rwanda survivors and perpetrators continue to live together. Healing and forgiveness are essential to improve the quality of life of survivors as well as perpetrators, to enable them to follow spiritual principles or laws of life, and to make coexistence possible. Healing and forgiveness help break the cycle of violence, since without them victims are likely to engage in defensive or revengeful violence. When there is some continued threat to victims and when perpetrators also feel like victims to some degree, which they usually do, forgiveness is more likely if it takes place in the context of mutual acceptance or reconciliation.