REPUBLIC OF RWANDA

Official name: Republika y'u Rwanda / Republique Rwandaise (Republic of Rwanda)
Location: Central Africa
International organisations:The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, The African Union, The Non-Aligned Movement, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation
Borders: Burundi, Congo (Democratic Republic), Tanzania, Uganda
Coastline: None
Land area: 26,338 Km2
Population: 7,400,000
Ethnicity: The entire population is of African stock. The major ethnic groups are the Hutu (84%) and the Tutsi (15%).

Languages: Kinyarwanda and French are the official languages. French is the language of government and business. Kiswahili is also used.
Religion: Over 90% of the population are Christians (Catholic 56.5%, Protestant 37%). 4.5% are Sunni Moslems.
Form of government: Currently in transition. Rwanda is divided into 12 prefectures.
Capital: Kigali
Constitution: The new Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda came into effect on 19 June 2003.
Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term. The current President, Paul Kagame, was chosen as president by the transitional legislature on 24 March 2000. He was elected to a full term under the new Constitution in August 2003.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President.
Legislature: In 1994 a Transitional National Assembly (Assemblee Nationale de Transition) was established, a power-sharing body with 70 members. The Assembly's members were named by the various political parties. Legislative elections are scheduled for September 2003.
Electoral authority: The National Election Commission administers national elections.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 6, Civil Liberties 5

Political history

The territory which now constitutes Rwanda and Burundi was annexed to German East Africa in 1890. In 1916 the territory was occupied by Belgians, and in 1922 the it was made the League of Nations Mandate of Ruanda-Urundi under Belgian administration. This became a United Nations Mandate in 1945. In the 1950s a nationalist movement developed, and internal self-government was granted in 1960. In 1962 the territory was divided into two independent republics, Rwanda and Burundi.

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.