Abstract
In the spring of 1994, a small and poor country hitherto unknown to the public at large suddenly became international front-page news. Following the shooting down of President Habyarimana’s aircraft, a low-intensity civil war that had started in 1990 and been supposedly ended by the Arusha Accord (August 1993) resumed; a genocide and large-scale massacres claimed the lives of over a million Rwandans between 7 April and the beginning of July 1994. Although the violence could be seen almost live on television, the international community did nothing to stop the carnage. The United Nations peace-keeping mission United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was all but withdrawn and it took weeks to formally recognize the violence for what it was — genocide.
He has greatly benefited from comments on an earlier draft of this article by A. Des Forges, J. P. Kimonyo, R. Lemarchand, P. Uvin and an anonymous referee of African Affairs. Of course, as the saying goes, he alone assumes responsibility for the contents.
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Notes
Out of a total population of about 7.8 million, that is almost 13 per cent. An attempt at establishing a casualty figure can be found in F. Reyntjens, ‘Estimation du nombre de personnes tuées au Rwanda en 1994’, in S. Marysse and F. Reyntjens (eds), L’Afrique des grands lacs. Annuaire 1996–1997 (L’Harmattan, Paris, 1997), pp. 179–186. A census conducted by the Rwandan government in 2000 arrived at the comparable, but ridiculously precise, figure of 1,074,017 (République rwandaise, Ministère de l’Administration locale, de l’information et des affaires sociales, Dénombrement des victimes du génocide. Rapport final, Kigali, November 2002). However, it must be made clear that the two estimates do not reinforce each other, as the government figure claims that at least 94 per cent of the victims were Tutsi, an assumption contradicted by demographic data (Tutsi numbered well under one million) and empirical fact (about 200,000 Tutsi survived the genocide, and hundreds of thousands of Hutu died at the hands of other Hutu and the RPF).
On this, see F. Reyntjens, ‘Constitution-making in situations of extreme crisis: the case of Rwanda and Burundi’, Journal of African Law, 40 (1996), pp. 236–239.
However, already in November 1994, the main opposition party MDR published a document (Position du M.D.R. sur les grands problèmes actuels du Rwanda, 6 November 1994) quite critical of the new regime. Other early warnings can be found in Amnesty International, Reports of Killings and Abductions by the Rwandese Patriotic Front, April–August 1994 (London, October 1994); Human Rights Watch, The Aftermath of Genocide in Rwanda (New York, September 1994);
Human Rights Watch, Rwanda: A New Catastrophe? (New York, December 1994). In the same period, I publicly expressed concern in a November 1994 memo, a summary of which was later published in English (
F. Reyntjens, ‘Subjects of concern: Rwanda, October 1994’, Issue, 23, 2 (1995), pp. 39–43).
For a few early examples, see V. Ndikumana and J. Afrika, Lettre ouverte au Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU sur la situation qui prévaut au Rwanda (Nairobi, 14 November 1994);
E. Ruberangeyo, Mes inquiétudes sur la gestion actuelle rwandaise des fonds publics (31 May 1995);
S. Musangamfura, J’accuse le FPR de crimes de génocide des populations d’ethnie hutu, de purification ethnique et appelle à une enquête internationale urgente (Nairobi, 8 December 1995);
F. Twagiramungu and S. Sendashonga, F.R.D. Plate-forme politique (Brussels, March 1996);
T. Lizinde, Rwanda: la tragédie (Brussels [in fact, Kinshasa], 1 May 1996).
International Crisis Group, Rwanda at the End of the Transition: A Necessary Political Liberalisation (Brussels, 13 November 2002), p. 2.
Human Rights Watch, No Contest in Rwandan Elections. Many Local Officials Run Unopposed (New York, 9 March 2001).
International Crisis Group, ‘Consensual Democracy’ in Post-Genocide Rwanda. Evaluating the March 2001 District Elections (9 October 2001), p. 35.
LGDL, La problématique de la liberté d’expression au Rwanda, December 2001.
For an analysis, see F. Reyntjens, ‘Les nouveaux habits de l’empereur: analyse juridico-politique de la constitution rwandaise de 2003’, in S. Marysse and F. Reyntjens (eds), L’Afrique des grands lacs. Annuaire 2002–2003 (L’Harmattan, Paris, 2003), pp. 71–87.
J.-H. Bradol and A. Guibert, ‘Le temps des assassins et l’espace humanitaire, Rwanda, Kivu, 1994–1997’, Hérodote, 86–87 (1997), p. 119.
P. Rutazibwa, ‘Cet ethnisme sans fin’, Informations Rwandaises et Internationales, 5, November–December 1996, pp. 19–20.
M. Dorsey, ‘Violence and power-building in post-genocide Rwanda’, in R. Doom and J. Gorus (eds), Politics of Identity and Economies of Conflict in the Great Lakes Region (VUB University Press, Brussels, 2000), pp. 311–348.
This term, literally meaning ‘little house’, was first used to refer to President Habyarimana’s inner circle; see F. Reyntjens, L’Afrique des grands lacs en crise. Rwanda, Burundi 1988–1994 (Karthala, Paris, 1994), pp. 189–190.
See Human Rights Watch, Rwanda. The Search for Security and Human Rights Abuses (New York, April 2000).
The expression is from C. Dietrich, The Commercialisation of Military Deployment in Africa (Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria, 2001).
Research has shown that, in 2000, the added value of diamonds, gold and coltan plundered in the Congo amounted to 190 per cent of Rwanda’s official military budget and to 110 per cent of the public aid it received (S. Marysse and C. André, ‘Guerre et pillage économique en République démocratique du Congo’, in S. Marysse and F. Reyntjens (eds), L’Afrique des grands lacs. Annuaire 2000–2001 (L’Harmattan, Paris, 2001), p. 326).
For more details, see M. Rafti, The Rwandan Political Opposition in Exile, discussion paper, IDPM-UA, Antwerp 2004, p. 1.
On this, see Human Rights Watch, Rwanda: un membre de l’opposition politique abattu, d’autres sont détenus. Human Rights Watch demande une investigation (New York, 9 janvier 2002).
Though impossible to establish precisely, this high death toll is now accepted even by those who initially put forward lower figures. See for example G. Prunier, Rwanda 1959–1996. Histoire d’un génocide (Dagorno, Paris, 1996), p. 427.
Amnesty International, Rwanda. Ending the Silence (London, 25 September 1997).
Amnesty International, Rwanda. Civilians Trapped in Armed Conflict. ‘The Dead can no Longer be Counted’ (London, 19 December 1997).
Republic of Rwanda, Etude sur les conditions de vie des déplacés vivant dans les camps du Nord-Ouest du Rwanda (Kigali, March 1999).
In this connection, see Human Rights Watch, World Report 2000 (New York, 2000), entry on Rwanda; US Department of State, 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, entry on Rwanda.
S. Takeuchi and J. Marara, Agriculture and Peasants in Rwanda: A Preliminary Report (Institute of Developing Economies, Chiba, 2000), p. 30.
See for example D. Hilhorst and M. van Leeuwen, Imidugudu. Villagisation in Rwanda. A Case of Emergency Development?, Wageningen Disaster Studies no. 2 (Wageningen, 1999).
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2002 (New York, 2002), entry on Rwanda.
The idea is reflected in the title of Mamdani’s book on Rwanda, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda (Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 2001).
However, see S. Desouter and F. Reyntjens, Rwanda: Les violations des droits de l’homme par le FPR/APR. Plaidoyer pour une enquête approfondie (Centre for the Study of the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Antwerp, June 1995); S. Smith, ‘Rwanda: enquête sur la terreur tutsie’, Libération, 27 February 1996; N. Gordon, ‘Return to Hell’, Sunday Express, 21 April 1996. An important report written by Alison Des Forges for Human Rights Watch and the Fédération internationale des droits de l’homme, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, published in New York in March 1999, contains a section (pp. 692–735) on the crimes committed by the RPF.
A good example is P. Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families: Stories from Rwanda (Farrar Straus and Giroux, New York, 1998). Although this book was extremely well received and became something of a Bible, particularly in the United States, it adds nothing to our knowledge of the genocide. The book is a thinly veiled apology for the RPF whose crimes are systematically minimized or explained away.
N.C. Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (Verso, London and New York, 2000), p. 3.
Amnesty International, Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwandese-controlled East: Devastating Human Toll (London, 19 June 2001).
A good example can be found in J.-F. Dupaquier, ‘Rwanda: le révisionnisme ou la poursuite du génocide par d’autres moyens’, in R. Verdier, E. Decaux and J. P. Chrétien (eds), Rwanda: Un génocide du XXe. siècle (L’Harmattan, Paris, 1995), pp. 127–136.
C. Vidal, ‘Les commémorations du génocide au Rwanda’, Les Temps Modernes, 613 (2001), pp. 1–46.
M. van Leeuwen, ‘Rwanda’s Imidugudu programme and earlier experiences with villagisation and resettlement in East Africa’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 39 (2001), pp. 623–644.
Human Rights Watch, Uprooting the Rural Poor in Rwanda (New York, May 2001).
A. Storey, ‘Structural adjustment, state power and genocide: the World Bank and Rwanda’, Review of African Political Economy, 28 (2001), p. 381.
J. Pottier, Re-Imagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002), p. 202.
G. Prunier, Rwanda: The Social, Political and Economic Situation in June 1997, Writenet (UK), July 1997.
W. Rutayisire, Gérald (sic) Prunier: A Eulogy for Genocide (Kigali, 24 October 1997). A juicy detail: Prunier is also accused of ‘anglophobia’, while some French quarters reproach him his ‘anglophilia’, as he had the audacity to publish in English and to criticize France for its ‘Fashoda syndrome’.
Amnesty International, Rwanda: Run-up to Presidential Elections Marred by Threats and Harassment (London, 22 August 2003).
Human Rights Watch, Preparing for Elections: Tightening Control in the Name of Unity (New York, May 2003).
By late 1997, compelling evidence was available through a large number of reports and testimonies. See for example Human Rights Watch, Democratic Republic of the Congo. What Kabila is Hiding: Civilian Killings and Impunity in Congo (New York, October 1997);
Amnesty International, Democratic Republic of Congo: Deadly Alliances in Congolese Forests (London, 3 December 1997). A list of sources can be found in
F. Reyntjens, La guerre des grands lacs: alliances mouvantes et conflits extraterritoriaux en Afrique centrale (L’Harmattan, Paris, 1999), pp. 113–116.
United Nations, Security Council, Report of the Investigative Team charged with investigating serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Democratic Republic of Congo, S/1998/581, 29 June 1998, § 96.
Médecins sans frontières, Refugee Numbers Analysis, 9 May 1997. Two victims’ accounts offer moving testimony to these atrocities: M. B. Umutesi, Fuir ou mourir au Zaïre: Le vécu d’une réfugiée rwandaise (L’Harmattan, Paris, 2000);
M. Niwese, Le peuple rwandais un pied dans la tombe: Récit d’un réfugié étudiant (L’Harmattan, Paris, 2001).
J. Migabo Kalere, Génocide au Congo? Analyse des massacres de populations civiles (Broederlijk Delen, Brussels, 2002), p. 216.
A UN Panel put in place in 2001 published a number of increasingly detailed reports on these practices by Rwanda and a number of other states. After the extension of its mandate, the final report of the Panel was published in October 2003 (United Nations, Security Council, Final Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, S/2003/1027, 23 October 2003). However, the substantive findings can be found in the previous ‘final report’:
United Nations, Security Council, Final Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, S/2002/1146, 16 October 2002.
Ibid., § 72–73; United Nations, Security Council, Report of the Panel of Experts on Violations of Security Council Sanctions against UNITA, S/2000/203, 10 March 2000. § 26.
International Crisis Group, The Kivus: The Forgotten Crucible of the Congo Conflict, Nairobi, Brussels, 24 January 2003.
J. Shattuck, P. Simo, W.J. Durch, Ending Congo’s Nightmare. W.at the U.S. Can Do to Promote Peace in Central Africa (John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, International Human Rights Law Group, The Henry L. Stimson Center, Boston, Washington DC, October 2003), p. 17.
On Rwandan and Ugandan involvement in the Ituri conflict, see Human Rights Watch, Ituri: ‘Covered in Blood’. Ethnically Targeted Violence in Northeastern DR Congo (New York, July 2003).
Admittedly, the aid community is facing enormous difficulties and donor assessments differ considerably. On this, see P. Uvin, ‘Difficult choices in the new post-conflict agenda: the international community in Rwanda after the genocide’, Third World Quarterly, 22 (2001), pp. 177–189.
P. Uvin, Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda (Kumarian Press, West Hartford, 1998), p. 110.
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© 2005 Filip Reyntjens
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Reyntjens, F. (2005). Rwanda, Ten Years on: From Genocide to Dictatorship. In: Marysse, S., Reyntjens, F. (eds) The Political Economy of the Great Lakes Region in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523890_2
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