Ethnic tensions in Rwanda Notes

Ethnic Tensions in Rwanda

1. This case study of Prescribe Topic: Conflict and Intervention focuses on the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.
2. Over 100 days between April and June, approximately 800,000 to over one million people-mainly Tutsi civilians-were brutally murdered by Hutu extremists.
3. This killing spree, faster and more intense than any genocide of the 20th century, surpassed those in Cambodia and Bosnia and occurred at five times the speed of the Holocaust.
4. While much of the international community remained unaware or inactive, Rwanda was devastated.
5. The massacre was not a spontaneous act of violence but a calculated strategy by a ruling elite desperate to retain power.

Rising of ethnic tensions: the colonial legacy

1. After World War I, Rwanda was handed to Belgium after having been colonized by Germany, under a League of Nations mandate.
2. The Belgians reinforced the existing social hierarchy, favoring the minority Tutsi-deemed racially superior based on pseudo-scientific beliefs-over the majority Hutu.
3. This preference entrenched an ethnic divide that had previously been more fluid and socio-economic than rigid or racial.
4. Belgian colonialism propagated the myth that the Tutsi were a racially distinct, superior people-taller, more intelligent, and better suited to rule.
5. These ideas, rooted in 19th-century European racial theory, shaped future ethnic ideology in Rwanda and were later weaponized by Hutu extremists in the 1994 genocide.

Belgian colonial rule in Rwanda

1. Direct rule and exploitation
   1. Belgium imposed direct rule, forcing labor and heavy taxation.
   2. Rwanda’s fertile land was exploited for cash crops like coffee.
   3. Tutsi elites acted as intermediaries, which increased resentment among the Hutu.
   4. The Hutu carried most of the exploitation but were politically marginalized.
2. Ethnically segregated education
   1. Tutsi children received superior education, usually in French.
   2. Hutu children were restricted to vocational training.
   3. Christianity was made compulsory for Tutsi elites, further raising their status.
   4. This reinforced Belgian control through religious and administrative loyalty.
3. 1933 census and identity cards
   1. People were officially classified as Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa.
   2. What had once been flexible social categories became rigid ethnic labels.
   3. The system institutionalized discrimination and created conditions for future mass violence.

Towards independence

1. UN trust territory after WWII
   1. Rwanda became a UN trust territory after the war.
   2. Belgium was criticized for failing to prepare Rwanda for independence.
   3. In the 1950s, anti-colonial movements grew and Belgium shifted its support to the Hutu majority after decades of favoring the Tutsi.
   4. This reversal intensified ethnic tensions and directly led to the 1959 Hutu Revolution, which set the stage for the 1994 genocide.
2. Independence and Revolution (1959-62)
   1. Rwanda gained independence from Belgium in July 1962 after a period of violent conflict.
   2. In 1957, Hutu leaders founded PARMEHUTU to challenge Tutsi dominance.
   3. After King Mutara III’s death in 1959 and a violent incident involving a Hutu leader, unrest spread.
   4. PARMEHUTU uprisings targeted the Tutsi elite, overthrew the monarchy, and installed a Hutu provisional government.
   5. This was Rwanda’s first major ethnic conflict, with 10,000–100,000 Tutsi killed.
3. Exile and rebel groups
   1. Facing massacres and persecution, thousands of Tutsi fled to neighboring countries, especially Uganda.
   2. These exiles became known as the “children of ’59.”
   3. Many formed armed groups, most importantly the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
   4. The RPF later played a central role in the events of 1994.
   5. Violence during this time was extreme, with rivers filled with bodies foreshadowing the genocide to come.