RWANDA-POLITICS: LITTLE HOPE FOR PEACE IN 1995

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

HORACE AWORI

NAIROBI, Dec 23 1994 (IPS) - THERE APPEARS TO BE LITTLE HOPE FOR PEACE IN RWANDA AS HUTU EXTREMISTS GO AHEAD WITH THEIR PLAN TO DESTABLISE THE GOVERNMENT IN KIGALI.

MOST HUTUS, WHO MADE UP 85 PERCENT OF RWANDA’S EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE BEFORE THREE MONTHS OF MASSACRES AND A MASS EXODUS REDUCED THE COUNTRY’S POPULATION, HAVE REJECTED APPEALS BY THE FIVE-MONTH OLD GOVERNMENT, WHICH IS DOMINATED BY THE MINORITY TUTSIS, TO RETURN HOME AND HELP IN NATION BUILDING.

DEFEATED HUTU SOLDIERS, EXILED IN NEIGHBOURING ZAIRE, TANZANIA AND KENYA, HAVE VOWED TO DISLODGE THE TUTSIS FROM KIGALI AS THE RWANDESE PATRIOTIC FRONT (RFP) DID IN JULY TO THE GOVERNMENT THEY BACKED.

A CHRONIC CRISIS IN THE FORMER BELGIAN COLONY HEIGHTENED AFTER THE RPF, MADE UP MAINLY OF EXILED TUTSIS, INVADED RWANDA FROM NEIGHBOURING UGANDA IN 1990.

THE CIVIL WAR DRAGGED ON EVEN THOUGH REGIONAL LEADERS MADE SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO FIND A PEACEFUL SOLUTION AND GOT THE BELLIGERENTS TO AGREE TO A GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY TO AVERT FURTHER BLOODSHED.

THE LAST ATTEMPT FAILED AFTER A PLANE IN WHICH PRESIDENT JUVENAL HABYARIMANA, A HUTU, WAS TRAVELLING WAS SHOT DOWN OVER KIGALI WHILE RETURNING FROM A REGIONAL PEACE CONFERENCE ON RWANDA AND BURUNDI, HELD IN THE NORTHERN TANZANIAN TOWN OF ARUSHA IN APRIL 1994.

FOLLOWING THE INCIDENT, EXTREME HUTU NATIONALISTS WENT ON RAMPAGE, KILLING MORE THAN 500,000 PEOPLE, MAINLY TUTSIS.

THE BLOODBATH STOPPED WHEN THE RPF MOVED INTO THE CAPITAL IN JULY AND THE DEFEATED HUTU SOLDIERS AND MILITIAS, KNOWN AS INTERAHAMWE (THOSE WHO ATTACK TOGETHER), FLED TO NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES WHERE THEY ARE NOW SAID TO BE REGROUPING TO LAUNCH A BUSH WAR AGAINST THE KIGALI GOVERNMENT.

THE SITUATION IS SO ALARMING THAT THIS WEEK A FRENCH RELIEF AGENCY, MEDICINS SANS FRONTIERES (MSF), PULLED OUT OF REFUGEE CAMPS IN TANZANIA, BECAUSE “MILITARY TRAINING OF REFUGEES IS OPENLY CONDUCTED HERE.”

ACCORDING TO FIONA TERRY, MSF FIELD CO-ORDINATOR IN TANZANIA, “LEADERS IN THE CAMPS OPENLY SPEAK OF RETAKING RWANDA BY FORCE.”