Will God ever return to spend the night in Rwanda?i

- Sidhartha Jatarii

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Abstract

In Rwanda there exists a fractured society and a psychologically traumatised generation which will have to deal with the complexity of the conflict and its socio-political dimensions. Survivors of the genocide will have to rebuild their faith in humanity and answer a seemingly unanswerable question –“When a people murders up to a million fellow-countrymen, what does it mean to survive?”

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Introduction

With the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentencing former defence official Theoneste Bagosora to life in prison for participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the international community can ‘pat itself on the back’ for a remarkable first – Bagosora is the first person to be indicted by the tribunal for planning and organizing killings.

Ever since the ICTR was set up in 1997, over 34 people have been convicted and 23 still remain on trial. Recently, a famous singer – Simon Bikindi was sentenced to 15 years in prison for an inflammatory speech he made inciting violence against Tutsis during the genocide. These convictions go a long way in reassuring Rwandans that justice has not left their doorstep and perpetrators of this inhuman crime will be brought to book.

However, that cannot take away the reality that over 800,000 people were killed in a period of 100 days during the genocide. Compare this to Pol Pot’s murder of a million victims in Cambodia over four years or Hitler’s systematic extermination of Jews during World War two and the scale and rate of the genocide will become clear.

History of the conflict

1. Roots

The roots of this conflict lie in social differentiation and concentration of power amongst the Tutsi elite (the minority group) which exercised total control over the Hutu majority for centuries. While a case of elitism may be made against the Tutsi community, racial prejudice and the myth of Tutsi superiority was implanted and reinforced only during European colonization (since 1894). E.g. John Hanning Speke, the Nile explorer,

propounded the Hamitic hypothesis according to which all culture and civilization in the region was introduced by the fairer, taller Tutsi community. The Germans and Belgians exploited such vague theories and instituted a policy of indirect rule (Tutsi chieftains were left to rule but in reality were mere puppets), thereby perpetuating feudalistic ways and introducing a system of apartheid.

During the independence movement in 1959, the Tutsi’s - who had long been favoured by the Europeans - found themselves at the receiving end as the Belgians switched sides and backed the rebellion towards majority Hutu rule. This resulted in an exodus of Tutsi’s from Rwanda who for the better part of their lives would live stateless in Uganda, Burundi, Zaire (now Congo) and Tanzania. Through a UN supervised referendum, a Hutu led party came to power in 1961 and the century’s old Tutsi power base shifted to the Hutu majority. The following three decades would see an internal power struggle with a leader emerging in the form of Juvenal Habyarimana. Under him, the government in Rwanda would, in the words of V.S Naipaul, become “mimic men” as they practiced the very abuses which they had revolted against. Habyarimana declared in 1986 that Rwanda was full and could not accommodate any Tutsi refugees and the Rwanda Patriotic Front (Tutsi rebels) was founded in Uganda the following year.

2. Genocide

In 1990, an attack by the RPF on Rwanda resulted in probably the first genocide against the Tutsi community with newspapers such as Kangura circulating the “Hutu Ten Commandments” - urging violence on all fronts. As tensions mounted and the fighting intensified, over a million people were displaced and left homeless. In 1993, renewed peace negotiations resulted in the Arusha Peace agreement and UNAMIR was deployed by the UNSC to implement it. Any progress that may have been made was unfortunately reversed when President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down (allegedly by the RPF but suspectedly by his own military officers). This moment was used by the Government to justify a wide-scale slaughter of Tutsi’s. Radio Rwanda reported that the Virgin Mary had told a renowned local visionary that she approved the killing of Tutsis and that the President was with her in Heaven. The Interhamwe, a pro-government militia assisted in the bloodletting. Militiamen with machetes cut off hands and limbs of people, raped women and dumped bodies into river streams. One can only imagine the fear and desperation that people must have felt.

3. Aftermath

Whereas the genocide might have been expected to strengthen the ruling Hutu party, in fact, the R.P.F gained control of Rwanda and established a new government. Revenge killings followed and an estimated two million Hutus fled to neighbouring Congo. Ever since, a Hutu rebel force has grown in Congo resulting in the Tutsi government of Rwanda invading Congo twice with the objective of eliminating the Hutu militia. Over five million lives have been lost in this renewed conflict and the worst seems yet to come considering that the struggle –which has spread to Congo – is no longer about an ethnic struggle but also about a race for resources. Today, an ethnic-Tutsi Congolese military

rebel named Laurent Nkunda runs amok. Under the garb of eliminating the Hutu militia, he has occupied resource rich regions of Congo and in the process committed several war crimes for which he is sought by Congolese authorities and the international community. The death of innocent civilians continues as the plague of hatred and violence spreads like wildfire.

Reflections

Who is to blame for this crisis? Can we pin-point a perpetrator and serve the cause of justice by trying henchmen and militia leaders? Was this genocide a crime against humanity (in its non-legal sense) or a crime by humanity? After all, military bosses, businessman, mayors, journalists, teachers, taxi-drivers, shopkeepers and a host of unidentifiable persons were involved in the fratricide. Even today amongst the crowd lurk murderers and rapists who did no better than the men being tried at the ICTR. How can society punish them? Would the slow and painstaking trials at the ICTR satisfy Rwandans? Would it fill the vacuum left behind?

In Rwanda there exists a fractured society and a psychologically traumatised generation which will have to deal with the complexity of the conflict and its socio-political and historical dimensions. Survivors of this tragedy will have to rebuild their faith in humanity and answer a seemingly unanswerable question –“When a people murders up to a million fellow-countrymen, what does it mean to survive?”

To end on a note of optimism and hope for the future, a famous Rwandan proverb would seem apt: imana yirirwa ahandi igataha i – God spends the day elsewhere, but always comes back to spend the night in Rwanda.

i Reference: United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda – Official Documents

ii IV BSL LL.B