ABOUT RWANDA

Photograph by Jean Luc Habyarimana

Rwanda, “the land of a thousand hills,” is a small, landlocked country in east Africa. Bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda has a population of 12.5 million people. The major economic sectors are tourism, mining and agriculture. The official languages are Kinyarwanda, Swahili, English and French.

Great progress has been made since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Today Rwanda is one of the safest countries in Africa. Remarkably, women now make up 68% of the parliament, compared with 32% in the UK.

RWANDA’S HISTORY

Rwanda was an ancient Kingdom with three social groups that later, during Colonial times, came to be known as ethnicity: the Tutsi, Hutu and Twa. Twa were the indigenous inhabitants of the region and were known for their hunting and crafts. Hutus formed the majority of the population and were associated with working the land. Tutsis owned cattle and were often seen as richer or upper class.

The Royal Family and Chiefs were predominantly, but not exclusively, Tutsi and there was exchange and movement between different groups. Rwandan society also featured numerous different clans including the Abanyiginya, Abega, Abasinga, Abatsobe and so on. These clans had members from across all three groups.

COLONIAL RULE

In 1895 the Germans claimed Rwanda as a colony and established indirect rule. After the First World War, Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi came under Belgian control.

The Belgians developed ideas that promoted racism and discrimination. They favoured the ruling Tutsi group, developing a theory, the “Hamitic hypothesis,” that Tutsis, supposedly taller and thinner, came from a “superior race” in the Nile valley and had more in common with white people than their Hutu brothers. Belgians introduced identity cards showing ethnicity in 1933 and began discriminating against the Hutu majority.

VIOLENCE GROWS

In 1959, after the death of King Rudahigwa Mutara III, with anti-colonial tensions running high, an alleged attack on a Parmehutu activist lead to the burning of Tutsi houses and the murder of 200-1,000 people. Attacks escalated over the following years and by 1964 the UN estimated there were 336,000 Tutsi refugees outside of the country. As Rwanda edged towards decolonisation, Belgium and the Church moved their support to favour the Hutus.

Rwanda gained Independence in 1962, led by President Grégoire Kayibanda, a Hutu extremist. Violence against Tutsis continued. Between December 1963 and January 1964 up to 14,000 people were murdered. Bertrand Russell described this as “the most systematic massacre since the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis”. Kayibanda was overthrown by his Defence Minister Juvénal Habyarimana in 1973. He claimed to be more sympathetic to Tutsis but this was not borne out in practice.

By the 1990s the ongoing violence had created a diaspora of as many as 700,000 refugees, in addition to other Banyarwanda who had earlier settled outside of Rwanda’s borders.

CIVIL WAR

Tutsis and moderate Hutus living in exile were refused the right to return home by both the Kayibanda and Habyarimana regimes for three decades. Together they formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1987. The RPF invaded Rwanda in October 1990, hoping to force the return of Rwandan refugees and change the way politics were organised in Rwanda. This resulted in civil war. During this time many Tutsis were suspected of being RPF sympathisers and there was frequent violence against civilians.

Under international pressure, President Habyarimana formed a coalition government in April 1992 and agreed to peace talks with the RPF in Arusha, Tanzania. Worrying that the Arusha Accords would lead to unacceptable loss of power, some members of the Hutu elite began to plan the extermination of their political opponents, who sympathised with the RPF cause, and everyone of Tutsi ethnicity. They armed local groups known as impuzamugambi and interahamwe and spread messages of hate through radio stations such as RTLM (Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines) and newspapers like Kangura. There were many warning signs that the country was building up to genocide.

GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TUTSI

On the evening of April 6th 1994, President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda and President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi were killed when their plane was shot down as it approached Kigali airport. Radio stations blamed the RPF and systematic killings of both Hutu and Tutsi opposition politicians began in Kigali. Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana requested protection from the UN but she and her husband were murdered by the Presidential Guard alongside ten Belgian UN peacekeepers. This led Belgium to recall the rest of its troops.

Théodore Sindikubwabo became President and Jean Kambanda Prime Minister. Kambanda took control of the genocide, supported by influential figures in the army and public life such as Colonel Théoneste Bagosora. Over the next three months over a million people would be killed in their homes, at roadblocks across the country and in churches, schools and public buildings where they had gathered for protection. Weapons included farming implements (machetes, knives, clubs), grenades and guns. The killings were carried out by the army, militia groups and local people – former friends and neighbours of the victims. Often the violence involved rape as a weapon of genocide, torture and extreme cruelty. No Tutsis were to be spared.

General Roméo Dallaire, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) repeatedly requested more troops so he could contain the violence. Instead, the UN Security Council reduced his force to just 270 people. After repeated reports of massacres, finally on May 17th the Security Council agreed to establish UNAMIR II with 5,500 men and a mandate to use necessary force. But by the time UN reinforcements finally arrived in Rwanda the genocide was already over. The only forces that did arrive in time were French military carrying out Opération Turquoise – a plan to create a safe area between conflicting sides. In practice they provided a gateway for Hutus, including genocidaires, to flee to Zaire.

During the genocide some people bravely hid their family, friends and neighbours and helped them to escape. Sometimes this was out of kindness, at other times for money or because they had no other choice. Many survivors would not be alive today if it wasn’t for this assistance. At various places around the country victims came together to resist genocide. For example in Bisesero, in the hills above Lake Kivu, 50,000 fought to protect themselves. Only 1,000 survived.

The RPF resumed fighting in April 1994 in order to stop the massacres. Over the following months they gradually advanced across Rwanda. On July 4th they took control of Kigali, on July 17th they took Gisenyi, the last Rwandan stronghold of Hutu Power.

By the end of the genocide over two thirds of the population of Rwanda had been displaced. Victims had fled to surrounding countries or RPF controlled areas for safety, large numbers of Hutus fled across Rwanda’s borders in fear of the advancing RPF troops, and perpetrators fled to avoid capture. There were over two million refugees in Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire.

AFTER GENOCIDE

After the genocide the RPF formed a coalition government called the Broad Based Government of National Unity, headed by President Pasteur Bizimungu. Long-term and more recent refugees began returning to Rwanda. Occasional violence persisted in North West Rwanda near the border with Zaire.

In 1996 Rwanda invaded Zaire, searching for genocidaires who were still destabilising the region in what became known as the First Congo War. Rwanda’s Congolese ally Laurent Kabila became President in 1997, renaming the country the Democratic Republic of Congo. President Kabila asked Rwandan and Ugandan forces to leave. They resisted on the grounds that Kabila was now forming alliances with the very groups made up of genocidaires that Rwanda went into Congo to fight against in the first place. Over 5 million people died in the ensuing struggle known as the Second Congo War.

Paul Kagame, who led the RPF force that ended the genocide, became President in 2000. He was elected in the first post-genocide elections in 2003, then re-elected in 2010 and 2017. The post-genocide government has focussed on establishing peace and unity, delivering justice and development. High level genocide perpetrators were tried at the International Criminal Court for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. Other perpetrators were tried at local gacaca courts. Literally meaning “justice on the grass” these courts revived traditional ways of settling disputes within the community. They were a compromise solution designed to deal with the huge prison population, build collective memory and foster peace and reconciliation.

KWIBUKA – REMEMBRANCE IN RWANDA TODAY

More than two decades after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda is still healing from the wounds of genocide but is also focussed on building a brighter future for young people and future generations.

Every year in April the country commemorates the genocide against the Tutsi. This period is known as Kwibuka which means remember in Kinyarwanda. Commemoration ceremonies begin on April 7th and non-essential businesses close down for an intensive week of mourning and remembrance. The government urges Rwandans across the country to “remember, unite and renew.” The mourning period as a whole lasts for 100 days. Survivors remember the specific dates when their individual family members were killed during the genocide.

Memorials offer places for mourning and remembrance throughout the year. There are six national memorials: Kigali, Nyamata, Ntarama, Nyarubuye, Murambi, and Bisesero. There are also many smaller, locally maintained memorials, often at sites where people were killed. The Kigali Genocide Memorial is a burial place for more than 250,000 victims of genocide. It also houses an exhibition explaining the history of genocide and runs educational programmes for school students and university researchers.