In the late 13th century, pastoral Tutsi tribes arriving from the south conquered the agricultural Hutu and hunter-gatherer Twa inhabitants of Rwanda and established a feudal kingdom. In the 1600s, the Tutsi King Ruganza Ndori extended the area of the kingdom’s rule to cover most of modern Rwanda. A unified state was established by King Kigeri Rwabuguri during the 19th century, but this lasted only until 1890 when Rwanda was annexed as a province of German East Africa during the European ‘Scramble for Africa’. Belgian forces occupied the country in 1916 and, as part of the post-World
War I settlement, Belgium was granted the right to govern the territory of Rwanda-Urundi under a League of Nations mandate. The Belgians sponsored the continued dominance of the Tutsi minority at the expense of the Hutu but were forced, in the early 1960s, to concede internal autonomy and then independence under majority Hutu rule.
Intercommunal violence between Hutus and Tutsis continued in the years after independence. Many Tutsis fled into exile in neighboring Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania during this period and a Tutsi Government-in-exile was established in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Relations between the Rwandan Hutu Government and both Uganda and Tanzania have been difficult ever since independence; however, as a landlocked country needing access to nearby ports, Rwanda has been judicious in its attitude.
In 1973, Major-General Juvénal Habyarimana led a bloodless coup and established a Hutu-dominated military Government. A few years later, under his direction, the National Revolutionary Movement for Development was founded. For the next two decades this was the country’s sole political party and was again dominated by Hutus. During most of this period, relations between the Hutu and Tutsi were reasonably stable. However, in October 1990 Tutsi exiles styling themselves as the Rwandan Patriotic Front attacked from across the Ugandan border. The outcome was inconclusive and after three years of sporadic fighting, the two sides agreed an uneasy truce in August 1993. Relations between the two communities were now very poor. Hutu extremists inside and outside the Government had decided upon a ‘final solution’ for the Tutsis and other political opponents. It required a single trigger to precipitate the appalling events of 1994.
This was a plane crash which killed President Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart and fellow Hutu, Cyprien Ntaryamira; both were returning from a regional summit in Tanzania. The precise circumstances of the crash remain a mystery but some people believed that the crash had been caused deliberately by those seeking to bring down the Government. Encouraged by official pronouncements and broadcasts, armed militias known variously as
interahamwe (roughly ‘those who struggle together’) or
impuzamuganbi (‘those of the same mind’), set about the systematic murder of their ethnic and political opponents, largely Tutsis. The international community, and especially the United Nations, proved extremely reluctant to intervene. There was particular opposition from the Americans, who were still scarred by their unfortunate experience in Somalia, and the French, who covertly backed the Habyarimana Government. The best estimate is that around 800,000 people were killed.
From their bases in Uganda, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took the only available course of action and launched a full-scale invasion. After a few weeks, the RPF entered a largely deserted capital: the bulk of the Hutu militia had escaped to refugee camps in the neighboring Democratic Republic where they mingled with terrified civilians escaping the carnage and the fighting, and established a provisional Government which has since consolidated its position and controls much of the country of Congo and Tanzania. Within a few years, they were able to reorganize and pose a significant military threat to the Rwandan Government. From this point onwards, the Rwandan conflict became embroiled in the wider and more complicated war under way in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The new Rwandan Government believed the Kabila regime in the DRC supported the Hutu exile forces and in 1998, they intervened on the side of rebels fighting the Kabila Government. After four years, with a stalemate in the field, they withdrew under a South African-brokered settlement. (Other foreign forces, including Ugandan, Namibian and Zimbabwean troops also pulled out.) The problem of the Hutu militia remains a major worry for the Rwandan Government and in December 2004 Rwandan troops entered into Eastern DR Congo reigniting hostilities.
Domestically, the Government faced a formidable task of reconstruction and reconciliation. The architects of the 1994 genocide have been (and still are being) tried before a UN- run tribunal based in Tanzania. Lesser offenders are dealt with in Rwanda. The Government, led by former army chief Paul Kagame, has a fairly impressive record under extremely difficult circumstances. The country relies heavily on western aid to sustain its economy. However, there are signs of an increasingly dictatorial attitude on the part of the government, manifested in the presidential and parliamentary elections held in the summer of 2003: amid numerous allegations of intimidation and ballot rigging, Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front won both polls with a huge majority. Given the Tutsi dominance of the RPF, there is a clear danger of a future repeat of the ethnic violence which has disfigured Rwanda since independence.
GovernmentExecutive power is held by the President, who is directly elected to serve a seven-year term. The legislature is the bicameral National Assembly. This comprises the 80-member Umutwe w’Abadepite (Chamber of Deputies) and the 26-member Umutwe wa Sena (Senate). The Chamber of Deputies serves a five-year term: 53 members are elected by proportional representation, 24 seats are reserved for women, two for the National Youth Council and the remaining seat for the disabled. Members of the Senate serve an eight-year term: eight are appointed by the President; the remainder are indirectly elected.
EconomyRwanda’s economy, which is based on subsistence agriculture, was devastated by the massacres of 1994, the huge refugee populations that resulted, political upheaval and, since then, ongoing fighting in several parts of the country.
Plantains, sweet potatoes, cassava and beans are grown for domestic consumption; tea and coffee are the principal cash crops and there is extensive livestock farming. Some rice and sugar plantations have also been developed.
Rwanda has some mineral deposits – principally tin ores, but also several ores containing rare metals such as tungsten and tantalum, which are in heavy demand in the world market. Extraction of the large natural gas reserves discovered beneath Lake Kivu has begun, although it has been disrupted by local fighting.
The industrial sector produces tobacco, metal goods, chemicals, rubber and plastics. In the service sector, the embryonic tourism industry (geared towards ecotourism) has had to restart from scratch as a result of the 1994 genocide and subsequent events.
Given the political situation, exacerbated by a series of poor harvests during the late 1990s, it is hardly surprising therefore that Rwanda continues to rely heavily on international aid.
A new Structural Adjustment Program was begun in 1998, followed by an ambitious privatization program: both are being conducted under the supervision of the IMF and World Bank. In 2002, telecommunications and government-owned tea plantations were put up for sale. The results so far have been quite good: the economy grew 5.8% in 2005 and inflation was 6.7%. But, like most sub-Saharan African economies, Rwanda is especially vulnerable to commodity price movements; these are presently at a very low level.
Aid donors have also promised further assistance conditional on Rwanda pulling its troops out of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The main regional cooperation mechanism for Rwanda is the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
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