Case Studies

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Background

The conflicts in Rwanda are based on regional as well as ethnic tensions primarily related to power divisions, wealth, and access.  The roots of the conflict stretch to colonial administration, where the Germans, and later the Belgians, granted elevated social status to the cattle-raising, minority Tutsi ethnic group over the agricultural, majority Hutus.  This status was reinforced legally and culturally through the distribution of administrative posts and the imposition of mandatory identity cards. After independence in 1962, the ethnic hierarchy was reversed, and the majority Hutus gained control over the government.  In the decades that followed, Tutsis experienced discrimination in education, employment and civil rights, and thousands fled to neighbouring countries as refugees. This served as justification for attacks against the Hutu-led government by the Tutsi dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from Uganda.

The ethnic conflict climaxed in 1994 with the infamous Rwandan genocide. The genocide was fuelled by a series of economic downturns during 1989-1990. President Habyarimana enlisted Rwanda into a globally indebted and foreign controlled economy through partnership with the IMF, relying on off-farm incomes, primarily the production of coffee.  When the international coffee industry toppled, (which subsisted 60% of the internal revenue) impending poverty was blamed on a scapegoat, the Tutsis - establishing a hotbed for violence. Further RPF attacks in 1992 roused a public outcry to halt the Tutsi's before there would be an all out war against the Hutus. Because the Hutus feared being relegated to subordinate status, a political group of young Hutu militants known as the interahamwe gained membership. The genocide began on April 6th, 1994 when President Habyarimana of Rwanda and President Pierre Nkurunzira of Burundi's plane was shot down by unknown assassins. In response, the interahamwe began attacks against Tutsi civilians. Over one million Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed over the span of one hundred days, leaving countless widows, orphans and displaced persons, until the Rwandan Patriot Front (RPF) infiltrated Rwanda and stopped the genocide in July 1994.

After the genocide, the RPF established the Government of National Unity. Initially, Pasteur Bizumungu, a Hutu was put into office as president, and he furthered the RPF's national unity programme by establishing a National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) to address the need for reconciliation after the genocide. However, the government could not claim authority because of allegations of corruption and in 2000, the Hutu president was replaced by Paul Kagame. Under Kagame, the NURC has established the Gacaca courts to implement justice on a local level. Gacaca is a pre-colonial form of justice and mediation that was resurrected to try the lower level perpetrators of the genocide within their community. In Gacaca, the perpetrators are encouraged to confess and tell the truth about their crimes, and the victims and community are encouraged to forgive the perpetrators and move forward. The NURC has used theatre (among other strategies) to decrease genocide ideology, mobilise and educate about the Gacaca courts and reconcile perpetrators and survivors at the grassroots level. These programmes aim toward creating a unified Rwandan identity that suppresses ethnic tensions in the country.