Languages: Kinyarwanda and French are the official languages. French is the
language of government and business. Kiswahili is also used.
Before European occupation, Rwanda had been ruled by the Tutsi minority, who kept the Hutu majority in serfdom. The democratic constitution left by the Belgians naturally gave political power to the Hutu, but the Tutsi did not accept this loss of their traditional authority. Ethnic violence periodically broke out, and in 1973 an army coup installed Juvénal Habyarimana in power, which he retained through the usual African one-party state system until 1991, when he agreed to the re-establishment of a multi-party system. At Arusha in 1993 an agreement was reached between the various ethnic-based parties. None of these have websites, but the defeated 2003 presidential candidate Faustin Twagiramungu does. The resumption of political life, however, re-awakened conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi minority, who had retained much of their economic power. When Habyarimana was assassinated in 1994, a Hutu party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front, seized power and a one-sided civil war broke out, in which up to 500,000 Tutsi were massacred by Hutu militia, supported by many politicians and Catholic clergy. This led to UN-approved intervention by French troops and thus to the 1993 Arusha peace accord. Following the establishment of a transitional government under UN supervision, Paul Kagame became interim president. Kagame was confirmed in office in rather one-sided but apparently reasonably fair presidential elections in August 2003. Legislative elections are scheduled for September. Rwanda remains a deeply divided and traumatised country, and it is hard to see how normal political life can be resumed. Recent reports from both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch document continued ethnic and political persecution and violence in the country. Human Rights Watch's 2003 report comments: "The Rwandan government, dominated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), demonstrated continuing hostility towards political dissent, press freedom, and an independent civil society as it moved towards a new constitution and national elections in 2003. Eight years after the 1994 genocide that killed at least half a million Tutsi, the government launched gacaca, an innovative, participatory, state-run justice system meant to speed up genocide trials and promote reconciliation. But its concern for justice had limits: It refused to let gacaca jurisdictions hear allegations of Rwandan Defense Force (RDF, formerly Rwandan Patriotic Army, RPA) war crimes, and it tried to stop the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from investigating RDF suspects." The United Nations has an extensive presence in Rwanda. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is still conducting investigations and trials relating to the 1994 massacres. More information on Rwanda is available at Africa South of the Sahara website. |
