I’ve saved this sensitive topic to be one of the last. I spent two months of this trip in Rwanda, working and touring and trying my best to figure out what actually happened with the genocidal conflict there – what led to it, and what’s left over today. In the end, Rwanda has shown me more that I could have imagined or could tell now (though I’m going to try), and there is more emotion pent up here than my words could lend justice to.
In 1994, about one million Rwandans were killed in a period of three months. Two million more fled the country as refugees – the beginnings of a humanitarian disaster which still exists today in Eastern Congo and the Kagera region of Tanzania. At the time, the total population of Rwanda counted eight million citizens. Imagine one-eighth of a national population disappearing within the space of a couple of months – the equivalent of 40 million Americans dying before Christmas. It is impossible to meet someone in Rwanda today who was not affected by the events of 1994.
At that time, Americans were flooded with headlines about the end of the Gulf War and the more politically strategic conflict in Bosnia and former Yugoslavia. Before we really knew what was happening, most of those Rwandans had been killed. It is still difficult to fathom the political and media-related failures that allowed the Rwandan genocide to happen in the first place, and continue to allow so much misconception and misunderstanding to persist. For most of us, what we know about Rwanda comes from watching Hotel Rwanda. Most of us really couldn’t find Rwanda on an African map. The economic and political issues of this tiny country aren’t significant to our own news headlines. But their implications are far more important than we know. Because the movie is fairly recent, we still envision Rwanda as an unstable and ungovernable country embroiled in civil war.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s too much here to try and weave together, but I want to write about what led up to 1994, to try and help us understand what actually happened. There’s a lot to keep track of here, but I really think the story is important to understand. Please be patient with it. In a second part, I’ll write about my experience there and what Rwanda is like today.
Traditionally Rwanda (then Ruanda) was a kingdom of two tribes – the Hutu and Tutsi – and an area that extended far beyond the current national borders. To my knowledge, the two tribes coexisted, traded, and intermarried for hundreds of years prior to the colonial era. The Tutsi were traditionally migrant livestock herders from Ssud or Ethiopia, while the Hutus cultivated land. Because of its remote location in the shadow of Central Africa, its traditional stability and alliance with the unconquered Buganda kingdom (modern-day Uganda), Rwandans remained isolated – they were not subjected to the slave trade, and many elements of their culture persist today.
The Ruanda kingdom was initially colonized (before it was even explored) in the late 1800s by the Germans, who claimed it along with Congo during the Berlin Conference in 1886 (the infamous meeting of European powers, where an Africa map was laid out and the nations took their pick of kingdoms to colonize). In turn, the Germans ceded the colony to the Belgians after WWI. The Belgians established a colonial administration to govern the kingdom. Just like in Kenya, where tribal chiefs became appointees instead of heirs or elected elders, the Belgians usurped the political structure in Rwanda, and the King became a figurehead. From the beginning of the colonial era, the Europeans favored Tutsi Rwandans, apparently for no other reason than their appearance – traditionally, Tutsis are taller, leaner, and lighter-skinned than the Hutus. The arrogant muzungu value system deemed that they cut a more imposing and dignified figure, one more suitable for holding political power. So the Belgians elevated the social status of the Tutsis over the majority Hutus and empowered them through political appointment.
Eventually, the Belgians issued national identity cards which deemed Rwandans officially ‘Hutu’ or ‘Tutsi’ – despite the fact that the two tribes had intermarried for generations and are hardly distinguishable (often not at all) from one another. It seems that certain individuals were labeled at the whim of colonial officials. For the first time, Hutus and Tutsis began to distinguish amongst themselves. I’ve written before how easy it becomes to lose touch with ourselves in midst of the world’s material interests (bullshit) and value systems (often bullshit). After long enough, with those values imposed upon them, Rwandans traded their traditional identity for one defined by segregation and politics. The Europeans, fighting for land holdings from thrones and chambers half a world away, eventually unhinged Rwandans from their core culture. They told Rwandans who they were to become, imposed their European values and political interests, and the damage was done.
As the Tutsis gained an air of superiority and the Hutus struggled to maintain their culture and dignity, tensions finally boiled over. In the late 1950s Hutus staged a rebellion and overthrew the Tutsi political hierarchy. When they realized that Rwanda’s political future (and the enforcement of their own interests) had been stripped from the Tutsis, the Belgians turned to support and arm the new Hutu regime. In 1962 Rwanda declared independence from Belgium. The Belgians continued to support the Hutu government in an effort to maintain their land interests. Eleven years later Juvenal Habyirimana assumed the presidency after a coup, and the Belgians and French began to reach out to his government in attempt to enforce their own political interests (simply another form of colonial imperialism) in Central Africa. For 26 years, the authoritarian and pro-Hutu Habyirimana regime stayed afloat by strategically playing both sides of the Belgian-French rivalry, as the Europeans jockeyed for influence in Rwanda (largely in order to gain access to the vast mineral deposits in Eastern Congo).
This was a season marked by political revolution throughout East and Central Africa; Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda each declared independence after armed revolutions, and Tanzania became communist. Besides the desire for political power, the Hutu revolution was a personal vendetta. They had looked on for fifty years while the Belgians favored their minority Tutsi counterparts, whom they used to view as their Tutsi neighbors. The goal of their revolution was to overthrow the Tutsis and establish an entirely Hutu nation. The revolution quickly turned into civil war. When it became clear that the Hutus had gained the upper hand and the Belgians switched alliance, the results were catastrophic. The empowered Hutus unleashed decades of resentment and killed tens of thousands of Tutsi citizens. After independence in 1962, the remaining Tutsis (numbering in the hundreds of thousands) were expelled and fled the country as refugees. They remained refugees for an entire generation while Habyirimana governed Rwanda under relative stability.
Most of the Tutsi refugees settled in Uganda, alienated but given asylum by the Ugandans and unwelcome in their homeland. Many of the young refugees grew up with a chip on their shoulder, feeling unaccepted. Many of the young men eventually empathized with Museveni’s revolution platform and fought in the Ugandan civil war on his side (Uganda has been fairly well-governed and been economically successful, relatively speaking, but Museveni has become yet another generational African leader). Paul Kagame was one of these young men. After rising through the ranks of Museveni’s freedom-fighting army, Kagame withdrew to help form the Rwandan Patriotic Front in the 1980s. RPF was a political movement formed to unite exiled and disgruntled Tutsi refugees in attempt to return to their traditional homeland. Kagame assumed charge of training the RPF military.
With discreet financial backing from many Western nations, Kagame helped shape RPF into a well-trained and disciplined movement. In 1990 RPF launched an offensive and moved into Northern Rwanda from Uganda. France sent troops to help bolster Habyirimana’s RGF (Rwanda Government Force) troops against RPF in the north. RPF easily defeated the French-backed RGF and advanced until their resources drew thin, at which point they were content to hold territory in Rwanda’s Northern Province and plan their next offensive. This was the beginning of a three-year civil war in the north, as RGF troops fought to hold back the RPF onslaught, and leaders from both sides were at an impasse to negotiate any form of treaty after multiple failed ceasefires. In 1991, while Kagame (now a general) was away in the United States, the RPF commanding general was killed during a gun battle, leaving Kagame to assume overall command of the RPF military and political agenda.
While the military forces traded fire in the north, things were unraveling within Habyirimana’s government in Kigali. It became increasingly clear throughout 1992 and 1993 that he was losing control of his own government as many key ministers and RGF commanders began to lean further in a pro-Hutu extremist direction. At the same time, the U.N. became involved in the saga, working to negotiate between both sides and setting up a series of failed peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, in attempt to set up a coalition government and organize democratic elections. In 1993 Canadian Major General Romeo Dallaire was assigned to enforce peace talk negotiations and assume command of the U.N. peacekeeping force already in place in Rwanda – largely a group of non-combat personnel assigned to aid negotiations, with a few detachments to provide security for ministers and ex-patriot diplomats. The U.N. never authorized a mission designed to protect Rwandans at home.
Finally, in mid-1993, both sides reached a tentative agreement in Arusha to install a coalition government by the end of the year, with organized elections to follow in 1994. For a fairly new movement comprised of generational refugees fighting under a bespectacled and mysteriously soft-spoken commander, it seems that the RPF got the sweetened half of the deal, securing the rights to a number of key ministerial positions and laying claim to half of the legislative number, despite being a traditional minority in Rwanda. Kagame continued to prove his political motivation and savvy while his outnumbered and inferiorly equipped troops pushed RGF forces back further, toward Kigali.
Through the end of 1993, one attempt after another failed at installing the coalition government in Kigali, to the exasperation of the U.N. Each time RPF delegates were brought in under armed escort, Hutu parliament members raised hell and the charade turned into a screaming match across the aisle, ending with an RPF walkout. Between these political headlines, tensions were reaching a boiling point within the government and in the Rwandan countryside. A new movement, called Hutu Power, was beginning to stir within the Habyirimana regime as he continued to lose grip of his own ruling party. For some reason, the government appeared to be purposefully causing unrest and upending each new attempt at installing the coalition, despite Habyirimana’s repeated support of the effort. Dallaire wrote that ministers and military officers seemed to be answering not to Habyirimana (who was attempting to negotiate and accommodate the U.N.), but to a select number of Hutu elitists and military commanders, amongst them the commander of the para-military national police force, the Gendarmerie, and Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, the Minister of Defense. An increasing amount of pro-Hutu extremist media was being broadcast over radio airwaves throughout the country. The Hutu Power message became clear while its mysterious leaders succeeded in stalling the political process – to permanently fix “the Tutsi problem.”
Which brings us to 1994. After five failed attempts at installing a new government, while Hutu extremists in Habyirimana’s government showed considerable savvy in playing France for additional resources and the U.N. for more time, all hell broke loose. On the morning of April 7, Habyirimana’s plane crashed on descent into Kigali, after attending a new round of negotiations in Tanzania. Habyirimana was killed in the crash. To this day, it is almost unanimous opinion that his plane was shot down, but the debate remains wide-open as to who did it. In my opinion it is not such a mystery. Dallaire wrote about meeting with Bagosora that morning to enlist his support in maintaining peace in the countryside and within the government. Bagosora cut short a meeting with other known Hutu Power leaders and showed up to meet Dallaire looking rested and refreshed, seemingly unsurprised about the plane crash. Dallaire noticed that he struggled to hide a smirk throughout their conversation. One current political figure in Rwanda led me through a series of evidence and confirmed that shortly before the crash, French military members were seen in the area of the airport that contained Habyirimana’s prized anti-aircraft missile system. Today Bagosora is under trial for sponsoring genocide.
Throughout negotiations in 1993 and early 1994, RPF and U.N. officials had caught wind of a mysterious ‘third force’ building strength throughout the countryside. Dallaire eventually learned this was a force of armed civilians being trained by the Gendarmerie to fight the RPF. Dallaire fought against the creation of this force under government supervision, but in the end he was simply a U.N. figurehead weakened by the rules and bureaucracy of his own organization; he was powerless to disarm the mysterious third force while the Hutu Power politicians continued to infiltrate and play off of negotiations with the U.N. security counsel.
After Habyirimana’s plane crash, Dallaire’s worst fears proved true. The third force, armed with machetes and calling themselves the Interahamwe (‘those who attack together’) unleashed havoc in the countryside, herding, slaughtering, and raping their Tutsi and moderate Hutu neighbors while the Gendarmerie and RGF looked on. Millions of civilians fled through the countryside and out of Rwanda while hundreds of thousands were caught up and murdered. The worst of the killings happened in Rwanda’s north, where the Gendarmerie had been headquartered (before RPF drove them out), and swept down through the central and eastern regions, with a wave of refugees running away and spilling over into Tanzania. At the same time, RPF mobilized in force to move south, take Kigali and overthrow the interim government, defeating RGF for good. But it took them three months to get there, while the countryside burned and the killings continued until one million Rwandans were dead. RPF saved and guarded as many as they could, but the panic and violence were too widespread to rein in before they controlled the country. As they advanced, there is also evidence that tens of thousands of Hutus were killed (at least) in revenge. Kagame proved his military brilliance throughout the campaign and is widely credited with stopping the genocide and bringing peace, which RPF did, but I am still confused why they waited throughout 1992 and 1993 to move out of their fortifications in the north and launch their final offensive.
In Rwanda I talked to dozens of people about the events leading up to 1994 – orphans, widows, pastors, former and current government ministers, foreign aid workers – in attempt to piece all of this together. For those of us Americans who hear anything about Rwanda, the stories have usually been distorted by the media. Though I don’t understand the depth of what actually happened, or who the main players were behind the scenes, I do know that what happened is not exactly what I’ve always heard, and the implications from Rwanda are far more important than we realize.
The Rwandan genocide was the boiling point of ethnic tension stirred up during the colonial era. It was also fueled by a complex political situation. But it was genocide – it took the American government months to use the term, and many people still doubt it. It was carefully planned and brutally executed - a Hutu government-sponsored extermination of any person that threatened their aspiration to power, primarily Tutsis, and also moderate and democratic Hutus. Fleeing the RPF invasion, the Interahamwe and Gendarmerie slaughtered any person that villagers or neighbors identified as anti-government, carrying kill lists that had been tallied months in advance. As the genocide continued, Kagame lost control of certain members of his army who, infuriated and seeking revenge, pursued genocidaires and Hutu refugees across national borders and killed tens of thousands more, some innocent. So what began as genocide became an increasingly complex political situation and civil war, until Kagame took over Kigali and was able to rein in his army. The conflict was also fueled by the political aspirations of certain world-power nations, with the French and Belgians jockeying for influence with Hutu Power members, without ever moving to protect civilians, the British arming both sides, and the United States silently working in the background of the RPF movement (to what capacity is still unknown). What results is the most disgusting and catastrophic display of human cowardice and failure that I have ever known. The United Nations knew what was brewing, but was repeatedly made a fool of during political negotiations with the same people who planned the genocide. Rivalry and political interests amongst the security council nations repeatedly denied Dallaire the resources he needed to prevent the genocide from happening and then to protect Rwandan citizens after it was too late. In the end, here is how the situation was summed up by a group of U.N. and western bureaucrats who were sent in to 'assess' the situation six weeks after the killings began: "After a thorough survey of the situation, we will advise our governments not to become involved as the risks are high and all that is here are humans."
I think we owe it to learn what actually happened in Rwanda. We all have something to learn from it. In a way, we are part of it.
Part 2 coming very soon - what Rwanda is like today. It feels great to be back; it was time to come home.
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