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National University of Rwanda
Butare, Rwanda

The roots of the Rwandan conflict stretch to colonial administration, when the minority Tutsi were granted elevated social status vis-a-vis the majority Hutus. In the years between independence and the infamous genocide, control over the government remained with the Hutu ethnic group. In the early 1990s, the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a series of attacks against the Hutu-dominated government, which resulted in increasing militarisation among the Hutus. The tension climaxed in 1994, and in the ensuing genocide, o ver one million Tutsi and Hutu moderates were killed during a span of one hundred days. The new government has attempted to promote reconciliation between the two groups through a series of initiatives, including the Gacaca Trials.

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