Dervla Murphy - Visiting Rwanda

VISITING RWANDA

Dervla Murphy

THE LILLIPUT PRESS

DUBLIN

for Clodagh

Acknowledgments

Without the advice and support of John Walton my Rwanda visit might never have happened. His colleagues in Kigali offered generous hospitality. So did various NGO workers throughout Rwanda, but they would prefer not to be named. To my first grand-daughter, Rose, a special debt of gratitude is owed; she started the whole thing by migrating to Zaire at the age of three months. On another plane, an equal debt of gratitude is owed to Antony Farrell of the Lilliput Press.

Chronology

1885

German Empire given responsibility for Rwanda-Burundi region at Berlin Conference.

1899

Germans set up civil administration.

1916

Belgian troops arrive as Germans withdraw.

1919

Treaty of Versailles entrusts region to Belgium as mandated territory.

1946

League of Nations mandate replaced by United Nations Trusteeship.

1957

The Hutu Manifesto demands independence from both the Belgians and the Tutsi monarchy which since 1931 has collaborated with Belgians.

1959

After death of Mwami (King) Mutara III, some 100,000 Tutsi are killed in a revolt against Tutsi rule and more than 200,000 flee into exile.

1961

The Hutu majority seizes power, abolishes the monarchy and proclaims a republic, recognized by Belgium. Rwanda and Burundi become separate states.

1962

Gregoire Kayibanda becomes first president of the independent Hutu republic and restricts his government to Hutus.

1965

The ruling party, PARMEHUTU, obtains 97% in a general election and Rwanda is declared a one-party state.

1973

In a non-violent coup, Juvenal Habyarimana overcomes Kayibanda who soon after dies in jail.

1975

The MRND, Habyarimanas party, replaces PARMEHUTU as single ruling party.

1986

Rwandan (Mainly Tutsi) refugees contribute significantly to the victory in Uganda of Musevenis army.

1988

In Washington a gathering of Rwandan refugees from all over the world endorse their unconditional repatriation as the only possible solution to their problems.

1990

Fred Rwigyema, formerly a Tutsi major general in Musevenis army, leads an invasion of Rwanda from Uganda on 30 September. French, Belgian and Zairean troops help to repulse invasion.

1991

Another invasion from Uganda is repulsed in January. On June 8 Habyarimana promises constitutional reform and a multi-party system.

1992

A transitional government is formed in April to hold power until the 1995 multi-party elections agreed to by MRND, who later reject agreement. This government never took power.

1993

Three-year war ends when Habyarimana signs Peace Accord with RPF in Anusha, Tanzania, on 4 August. In June, Melchior Ndadaye wins Burundis presidential election and becomes the first Hutu president. In October his assassination by Tutsi officers in a military coup provokes extreme violence.

1994

5 April UNAMIRs mandate extended to 29 July by the Security Council. Next day Habyarimana and President Cyprien Ntariyamira of Burundi die together in a plane crash and the genocide starts in Kigali.

9 April Belgian and French paratroopers arrive in Kigali to rescue expatriates.

12 April Government forces and RPA begin the battle for Kigali. Throughout the country thousands of Tutsi are being massacred every day.

21 April UNAMIR troops reduced from 2500 to 270 by Security Council Resolution 912.

17 May Over half a million Tutsi have been slaughtered. Security Council Resolution 918 calls for the end of the massacres and increases the Blue Helmets to 5500 (UNAMIR II)

17 June Numbers of victims has risen to three-quarters of a million. A French initiative for humanitarian intervention approved by Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

30 June Massacres described as genocide by UN Human Rights Commission Special Rapporteur, in a detailed report.

1 July UN Security Council Resolution 935 calls for the setting up of a committee of impartial experts to investigate the evidence for possible acts of genocide.

4 July RPF forces capture Kigali.

14 July RPF forces take Ruhengeri, the main town in northern Rwanda, and tens of thousands of refugees flee over the border into Zaire.

17 July RPF forces capture Habyarimanas last bastion, Gisenyi.

18 July The end of the war is declared and the RPF install a new government of national unity with a Hutu President and Hutu Prime Minister.

Glossary

Akazu : The inner circle of government who wielded most power during Habyarimanas presidency.

askari : East African soldier or policeman, a term now used in Frances ex-colonies to describe privately employed security guard.

burgomaster : a communes chief administrative officer appointed by the central government.

cellule : a group of ten or so rural house-holds: the smallest unit in a commune.

commune : thousands of homesteads scattered over adjacent hills.

Interahamwe : a civilian militia recruited to help implement genocide.

Indaba : a conference or serious debate, usually involving the elders of a community.

injara : Ethiopian bread made with ???? flour.

matatu : minibus taxi.

muzungu : white person.

rugo : peasant homestead: one or more huts usually enclosed by a fence.

umuganda : free labour demanded by the state (previously by kings or chiefs) as a form of tax.

wat : Ethiopian spicy sauce.

Acronyms

CIA : Central Intelligence Agency

EU : European Union

FAR : Rwandan armed forces pre-genocide

IMF : Internally displaced person

MAF : Missionary Aviation Fellowship

MRND : Mouvement Rvalutionnaire National pour le Dveloppement, founded by president Habyarimana: the only political party permitted under his rule.

MSF : Medicine Sans Frontires

NGO : Non-governmental organization: e.g., Concern, Oxfam, Medicine Sans Frontires, Christian Aid.

OAU : Organization of African Unity

RMC : Radio Milles Collines, a private radio station used to incite hatred of the Tutsi.

RPA : Rwandan Patriotic Army

RPF : Rwandan Patriotic Front

SAP : Structural Adjustment Programme: a spending restriction placed by the IMF on countries indebted to it.

UNHCR : United Nations High Commission for Refugees

UNAMIR : United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda

WB : World Bank

WFP : World Food Programme

Prologue

Throughout April and May 1994 I was in South Africa, completely absorbed in that countrys affairs, and I scarcely registered Rwandas genocide while it was happening. Then, my knowledge of Rwanda could have been written on a postcard. I knew only that it had the highest population density in mainland Africa (some 7.15 million occupying a territory about the size of Wales), that it was very beautiful, mainly dependent on agriculture and terrifyingly prone to lethal conflicts between the fifteen per cent Tutsi minority for centuries the ruling lite and the Hutu majority. I remembered too that in 1961, after the massacring of many Tutsi, the Hutu gained power as the Belgian rulers prepared to leave their grossly mistreated colony to its own sanguinary devices. Also, during a 1992 cycle ride from Kenya to Zimbabwe, I met a few of the Tutsi who had settled in Uganda as refugees in 1959 and subsequent years. From then I learned that between 62 and 67 certain Tutsi factions had tried to fight their way back to Rwanda but were always defeated. These incursions provoked reprisals, usually government-organised, against Tutsi still living in Rwanda. During the 60s some 20,000 were killed and hundreds of thousands fled to neighbouring countries: Burundi, Uganda, Zaire and Tanzania.

In April 1995, a year after the genocide began, I suddenly had a personal reason to focus on Rwanda. My daughter Rachel, then two months pregnant, and her partner Andrew, were moving to Kigali where Andrew was to spend six months attached to a UNHCR team. (They first met in Mozambique when working as UN volunteers with a unit established to disarm the opposing armies in preparation for the elections of November 1994. On their return from Kigali in October, they came to stay with me and I expected graphic accounts of life in post-genocide Rwanda; normally both enjoy describing their travels and analysing regional problems. But this time they had strangely little to say. Almost nothing, in fact; their faces closed if anyone asked about their impressions of and experiences in Rwanda. This silence was in itself disturbingly eloquent and when they lent me two books I fully understood it.