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History and Government
History: 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 neighbouring 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 poor ever since independence; however, as a landlocked country needing access to nearby ports, Rwanda has kept its reaction – such as border closures – to a minimum. In 1973, Major-General Juvénal Habyarimana led a bloodless coup, which established a military government.
A few years later, under his direction, the National Revolutionary Movement for Development was founded and remained in power until 1994. The internal political situation was relatively stable until October 1990 when a full-scale invasion was launched from across the Ugandan border by Tutsi exiles, styling themselves the Rwandan Patriotic Front. After three years of sporadic fighting, the two sides agreed a peace treaty signed in August 1993. But the political agenda of the Habyarimana government remained the same: to rid the country of Tutsis and their supporters. Once the deal with the RPF had been concluded, the Hutu extremists inside and outside the Government concentrated on developing a ‘final solution’ for the Tutsis and other political opponents.
The trigger for the terrible events of 1994 was a plane crash which killed President Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart, Cyprien Ntaryamira, both of whom were returning from a regional summit in Tanzania. Encouraged by official pronouncements and broadcasts, Hutus, led by 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. The best estimate is that around 800,000 people were killed. The international community, and especially the United Nations, proved extremely reluctant to intervene, facing opposition from the USA, still haunted by its unfortunate experience in Somalia, and the French, who covertly backed the Habyarimana Government.
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 and established a provisional government which has since consolidated its position and controls much of the country. The bulk of the Hutu militia had escaped to refugee camps in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania where they mingled with terrified civilians escaping the fighting. Within a few years, they were able to reorganise and pose a significant military threat to the Rwandan government. The Rwandan government believes that the Kabila regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) supports these Hutu exile forces, and in 1998, it intervened on the side of the anti-Kabila rebels (who have a significant ethnic Tutsi component). In September 2002, with a stalemate in the field, the Rwandans – along with Ugandan, Namibian and Zimbabwean forces who had also entered the war on the side of the Kabila government – pulled out under the terms of a peace accord brokered by the South Africans. However, the Rwandans are still deeply concerned by the presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo of armed Hutu militia who they believe pose a long-term threat to Rwandan security. They have already threatened on several occasions since late 2002 to return in force.
Changes at the top of the Rwandan administration in 2000 brought Paul Kagame, a constant figure at the top of the Rwandan military since 1994, to the presidency; his prime minister is Bernard Mazuka. Meanwhile the government is prosecuting some of those it holds responsible for the genocide and trying to reorganise the country’s shattered economy with international support.
Government: Legislative power is vested in a 70-member Transitional National Assembly. The President holds executive power, assisted by an appointed Council of Ministers.
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