Acronym Definition
RWAE Radwaste Area Enterprise
RWAE Ralph Whitehead Associates, Inc. (Charlotte, North Carolina) Enterprise
RWAE Reaction Wheel Assembly Enterprise
RWAE Ready Willing & Able Enterprise
RWAE Rear Wheel Assist (agricultural equipment) Enterprise
RWAE Rebel Weezer Alliance (official weezer [band] website; written =rwa=)
Enterprise
RWAE Red Wine Audio (Meriden, Connecticut) Enterprise
RWAE Regional Water Authority Enterprise
RWAE Reimbursable Work Authorization Enterprise
RWAE Relative Wavelength Accuracy (Agilent) Enterprise
RWAE Return Without Action Enterprise
RWAE Right Wing Authoritarianism (psychology) Enterprise
RWAE Risk-Weighted Assets Enterprise
RWAE Romance Writers of America Enterprise
RWAE Rotary-Wing Aircraft Enterprise
RWAE Rotating Wave Approximation Enterprise
RWAE Routing and Wavelength Assignment Enterprise
RWAE Royal West Academy (Montreal, Canada) Enterprise
RWAE Royal West of England Academy of Art (Bristol, England) Enterprise
RWAE Rush\Wright Associates (landscape architects) Enterprise
RWAE Rwanda Enterprise
RWAE Remote WAP Application Environment
RWAE Remote Wargaming the Asymmetric Environment (US DARPA program)
RWAE Remote Wavelength Add Edge
RWAE Remote Weighted Average of Individual Estimates
RWAE Remote While/When Actually Employed
RWAE Remote Wide-Area Application Engine (Cisco)
RWAE Remote Wireless Application Environment (WAP)
RWAE Remote Wireless Applications in the Enterprise
RWAE Remote Work Assessment Executive
RWAE Remote Work Assignment Executive
RWAE Remote Works-As-Executed
RWAE Revenge Warriors Againts Evil (RWAE)
WAE or wae or RWAE may refer to:
* WAE, a Detroit born hip-hop artist
* the ISO/DIS 639-3 code for Walser German
* Wa (Japan)
* Remote Web Application Extension
* Remote Wireless Application Environment
* While Actually Employed,
The Rwa are an ethnic and linguistic group based around Mount Meru in the Arusha
Region of Tanzania. In 1987 the Rwa population was estimated to number 90,000
The Republic of Rwanda (IPA: [?(g)wɑndɑ]), is a small landlocked country in the
Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approximately 9 million
people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, with most
of the population engaged in subsistence agriculture. A verdant country of
fertile and hilly terrain, the small republic bears the title "Land of a
Thousand Hills" (French: Pays des Mille Collines /pei de mil k?.lin/;
Kinyarwanda: Igihugu cy'Imisozi Igihumbi).
The country has garnered international attention most markedly for the infamous
Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Rwanda has applied to become a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations and a decision on its application is expected in 2009.
History
The Twa, the aboriginal Pygmy inhabitants, have probably lived in the region in
and around Rwanda for 35,000 years. According to historical legend, such as
those recounted by European colonists such as John Hanning Speke, an offshoot of
the Hamitic tribes, the Hutu, arrived in Rwanda from the Congo basin.
Subsequnetly, according to legend, between the 14th and 15th centuries the
pastoral Tutsi population then arrived from Ethiopia. This was thought to
explain the physical similarities with groups from Ethiopia, including the
narrow noses and tall features associated with the Tutsi group.
Some modern linguists and geneticists question the beliefs of the early
colonists, but the legend was long taught in colonial schoolhouses. ,
Kinyarwanda was a force in uniting the country, although the contributions from
different ethnic groups is not well-delineated.
Precolonial Rwanda kept no written records, and its reality is likely only
partially recorded by the legends recounted by the Europeans. At the time of the
arrival of the Europeans, there existed a Kingdom of Rwanda that constituted a
highly organized society, with its own religion and creation myths. The country
was known even then for the discipline of its military, which successfully
fended off attacks from outsiders, and mounted raids into the Kingdom of Burundi
and the territory to the west of Lake Kivu.
Historically, part of Rwanda existed as a kingdom under a centralized
administration headed by a king. Rwandans were differentiated along social lines
depending on their level of wealth (cattle). Usually, the Batutsi class depended
on cows for their livelihood. Abahutu depended on agriculture, while the Batwa
either produced pottery or specialized in entertaining at the king's court.
All three classes paid tribute to the king in return for protection and various
favours. Batutsi, who lost their cattle due to a disease epidemic such as
Rinderpest, sometimes would be considered Bahutu and likewise Bahutu who
obtained cattle would come to be considered Batutsi, thus climbing the ladder of
the social strata. This social mobility ended abruptly with the onset of
colonial administration. What had hitherto been often considered social classes
took a fixed ethnic outlook under careful scrutiny thus there emerged the
"Tutsi, Hutus and Twa ethnic groups".
A traditional justice system called Gacaca predominated as an institution for
resolving conflict, rendering justice and reconciliation. The Tutsi king was the
ultimate judge and arbiter for those cases that ever reached him. Despite the
traditional nature of the system, harmony and cohesion had been established
among Rwandans and within the kingdom.
Colonial Era
After signing treaties with chiefs in the Tanganyika region in 1884-1885,
Germany claimed Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi as its own territory. Count von
G?tzen met the Tutsi Mwami for the first time in 1894. However, with only 2500
soldiers in East Africa, Germany did little to change societal structures in
much of the region, especially in Rwanda. After the Mwami's death in 1895, a
period of unrest followed. Germans and missionaries then began to enter the
country from Tanganyika in 1897-98.
By 1899 the Germans exerted some influence by placing advisors at the courts of
local chiefs. Much of the Germans' time was spent fighting uprisings in
Tanganyika, especially the Maji-Maji war of 1905-1907. On May 14, 1910 the
European Convention of Brussels fixed the borders of Uganda, Congo, and German
East Africa which included Tanganyika and Ruanda-Urundi. In 1911, the Germans
helped the Tutsi put down a rebellion of Hutus in the northern part of Rwanda
who did not wish to submit to central Tutsi control.
During World War I, 1916, Belgian forces advanced from the Congo into Germany's
East African colonies. After Germany lost the War, Belgium accepted the League
of Nations Mandate of 1923 to govern Ruanda-Urundi along with the Congo, while
Great Britain accepted Tanganyika and other German colonies. After World War II
Ruanda-Urundi became a United Nations (UN) "trust territory" administered by
Belgium. The Belgian involvement in the region was far more direct than had been
the German involvement and extended its interests into education and
agricultural supervision. The latter was especially important in the face of two
droughts and subsequent famines in 1928-29 and in 1943. These famines forced
large migrations of Rwandans to neighboring Congo.
The Belgian colonizers also accepted the prevailing class rule already in place,
i.e., the minority Tutsi upper class and the lower classes of Hutus and Tutsi
commoners. However, in 1926 the Belgians abolished the local posts of
"land-chief", "cattle-chief" and "military chief," and in doing so they stripped
the Hutu of their limited local power over land. In the 1920s, under military
threat, the Belgians finally helped to bring the northwest Hutu kingdoms, who
had maintained local control of land not subject to the Mwami, under the Tutsi
royalty's central control. These two actions disenfranchised the Hutu. Large,
centralized land holdings were then divided into smaller chiefdoms.
The fragmenting of Hutu lands angered Mwami Yuhi IV, who had hoped to further
centralize his power enough to rid himself of the Belgians. In 1931 Tutsi plots
against the Belgian administration resulted in the Belgians deposing the Tutsi
Mwami Yuhi. This caused the Tutsis to take up arms against the Belgians, but
because of their fear of the Belgians' military superiority, they did not openly
revolt.
The Roman Catholic Church and Belgian colonial authorities considered the Hutus
and Tutsis different ethnic races based on physical differences and patterns of
migration. However, because of the existence of many wealthy Hutu who shared the
financial (if not physical) stature of the Tutsi, the Belgians used an expedient
method of classification based on the number of cattle a person owned. Anyone
with ten or more cattle was considered a member of the aristocratic Tutsi class.
From 1935 on, "Tutsi", "Hutu" and "Twa" were indicated on identity cards.
The Roman Catholic Church, the primary educators in the country, subscribed to
and reinforced the differences between Hutu and Tutsi. They developed separate
educational systems for each. In the 1940s and 1950s the vast majority of
students were Tutsi. In 1943, Mwami Mutari III became the first Tutsi monarch to
convert to Catholicism.
The Belgian colonialists continued to depend on the Tutsi aristocracy to collect
taxes and enforce Belgian policies. It maintained the dominance of the Tutsi in
local colonial administration and expanded the Tutsi system of labor for
colonial purposes. The United Nations later decried this policy and demanded a
greater self-representation of the Hutu in local affairs. In 1954 the Tutsi
monarchy of Ruanda-Urundi demanded independence from Belgian rule. At the same
time it agreed to abolish the system of indentured servitude (ubuhake and
uburetwa) the Tutsis had practiced over the Hutu until then.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, a wave of Pan-Africanism swept through Central
Africa, with leaders such as Julius Nyerere in Tanzania and Patrice Lumumba in
the Congo. Anti-colonial sentiment stirred throughout central Africa, and a
socialist platform of African unity and equality for all Africans was forwarded.
Nyerere himself wrote about the elitism of educational systems, which Hutus
interpreted as an indictment of the elitist educations provided for Tutsis in
their own country.
Encouraged by the Pan-Africanists, Hutu advocates in the Catholic Church, and by
Christian Belgians (who were increasingly influential in the Congo), Hutu
sentiment against the aristocratic Tutsi was increasingly inflamed. The United
Nations mandates, the Tutsi overlord class, and the Belgian colonialists
themselves added to the growing unrest.
The Hutu "emancipation" movement was soon spearheaded by Gregoire Kayibanda,
founder of PARMEHUTU, who wrote his "Hutu Manifesto" in 1957. The group quickly
became militarized.
In reaction, in 1959, the UNAR party was formed by Tutsis who desired an
immediate independence for Ruanda-Burundi, to be based on the existing Tutsi
monarchy. This group also became quickly militarized. Skirmishes began between
UNAR and PARMEHUTU groups.
Then in July 1959, the Tutsi Mwami (King) Mutara III Charles was believed by
Rwandan Tutsis to have been assassinated when he died following a routine
vaccination by a Flemish physician in Bujumbura. His younger half-brother then
became the next Tutsi monarch, Mwami (King) Kigeli V.
In November 1959, Tutsi forces beat up a Hutu politician, Dominique Mbonyumutwa,
and rumors of his death set off a violent backlash against the Tutsi known as
"the wind of destruction." Thousands of Tutsis were killed and many thousands
more, including the Mwami, fled to neighboring Uganda before Belgian commandoes
arrived to quell the violence. Several Belgians were subsequently accused by
Tutsi leaders of abetting the Hutus in the violence.
Tutsi refugees also fled to the South Kivu province of the Congo, where they
called themselves Bunyamalengi. They eventually became a primary force in the
First and Second Congo Wars.
In 1960, the Belgian government agreed to hold democratic municipal elections in
Ruanda-Urundi, in which Hutu representatives were elected by the Hutu
majorities. This precipitous change in the power structure threatened the
centuries-old system by which Tutsi superiority had been maintained through
monarchy.
An effort to create an independent Ruanda-Urundi with Tutsi-Hutu power sharing
failed, largely due to escalating violence. The Belgian government, with UN
urging, therefore decided to divide Ruanda-Urundi into two separate countries,
Rwanda and Burundi. Each had elections in 1961 in preparation for independence.
In 1961, Rwandans voted, by referendum and with the support of the Belgian
colonial government, to abolish the Tutsi monarchy and instead establish a
republic. Dominique Mbonyumutwa, who had survived his previous attack, was named
the first president of the transitional government.
Burundi, by contrast, established a constitutional monarchy, and in the 1961
elections leading up to independence, Louis Rwagasore, the son of the Tutsi
Mwami and a popular politician and anti-colonial agitator, was elected as Prime
Minister. However, he was soon assassinated. The monarchy, with the aid of the
military, therefore assumed control of the country, and allowed no further
elections until 1965.
Between 1961 and 1962, Tutsi guerrilla groups staged attacks into Rwanda from
neighboring countries. Rwandan Hutu-based troops responded and thousands more
were killed in the clashes.
Conflict between the two ethnic groups began to break out when the Hutu started
calling for independence from the Belgium colonial rule in the 1950s. This upset
the Belgians who then looked to the Hutu because they believed that the Hutu
would be easier to control. Therefore, they began replacing the Tutsi chiefs
with Hutus. This created the civil unrest between the two groups. The Belgians
allowed the Hutu to do very disparaging things to the Tutsis such as burn down
the Tutsis’ houses.
On July 1, 1962, Belgium, with UN oversight, granted full independence to the
two countries. Rwanda was created as a republic governed by the majority Party
of the Hutu Emancipation Movement (PARMEHUTU), which had gained full control of
national politics by this time.
In 1963, a Tutsi guerrilla invasion into Rwanda from Burundi unleashed another
anti-Tutsi backlash by the Hutu government in Rwanda, and an estimated 14,000
people were killed. In response, a previous economic union between Rwanda and
Burundi was dissolved and tensions between the two countries worsened. Rwanda
also now became a Hutu-dominated one-party state.
Post-Independence
Gregoire Kayibanda, founder of PARMEHUTU (and a Hutu) was the first president
(from 1962 to 1973), followed by Juvenal Habyarimana (who was president from
1973 to 1994). The latter, also a Hutu (from the northwest of Rwanda), took
power from Kayibanda in a 1973 coup, claiming the government to have been
ineffective and riddled with favoritism. He installed his own political party
into government. This occurred partially as a reaction to the Burundi genocide
of 1972, with the resultant wave of Hutu refugees and subsequent social unrest.
Many viewed him as a ruthless dictator, though, with 20 years of rule marked by
an iron-fist policy against both Tutsis as well as moderate Hutus who opposed
him. He resisted ongoing calls for free elections and was opposed to
long-running demands by Rwandan Tutsi refugees for their right of return. (By
the 1990s, Rwanda had up to one million refugees, both Tutsi and Hutu, scattered
around neighbouring countries, in Uganda, Congo, Burundi, and Tanzania.) Despite
these problems, Rwanda enjoyed relative economic prosperity during the early
part of his regime.
Inter-relationship with events in Burundi
The situation in Rwanda had been influenced in great detail by the situation in
Burundi. Both countries had a Hutu majority, yet an army-controlled Tutsi
government in Burundi persisted for decades. After the assassination of
Rwagasore, his UPRONA party was split into Tutsi and Hutu factions. A Tutsi
Prime Minister was chosen by the monarch, but, a year later in 1963, the monarch
was forced to appoint a Hutu prime minister, Pierre Ngendandumwe, in an effort
to satisfy growing Hutu unrest. Nevertheless, the monarch soon replaced him with
another Tutsi prince. In Burundi's first elections following independence, in
1965, Ngendandumwe was elected Prime Minister. He was immediately assassinated
by a Tutsi extremist and he was succeeded by another Hutu, Joseph Bamina. Hutus
won 23/33 seats in national elections a few months later, but the monarch
nullified the elections. Bamina was soon also assassinated and the Tutsi monarch
installed his own personal secretary, Leopold Biha, as the Prime Minister in his
place. This led to a Hutu coup from which the Mwami fled the country and Biha
was shot (but not killed). The Tutsi-dominated army, led by Michel Micombero
brutally responded: almost all Hutu politicians were killed. Micombero assumed
control of the government and a few months later deposed the new Tutsi monarch
(the son of the previous monarch) and abolished the role of the monarchy
altogether. He then threatened to invade Rwanda. A military dictatorship
persisted in Burundi for another 27 years, until the next free elections, in
1993.
Another 7 years of sporadic violence in Burundi (from 1965 - 1972) existed
between the Hutus and Tutsis. In 1969 another purge of Hutus by the Tutsi
military occurred. Then, a localised Hutu uprising in 1972 was fiercely answered
by the Tutsi-dominated Burundi army in the largest Burundi genocide of Hutus,
with a death toll nearing 200,000.
This wave of violence led to another wave of cross border refugees into Rwanda
of Hutus from Burundi. Now there were large numbers of both Tutsi and Hutu
refugees throughout the region, and tensions continued to mount.
In 1988, Hutu violence against Tutsis throughout northern Burundi again
resurfaced, and in response the Tutsi army massacred approximately 20,000 more
Hutu. Again thousands of Hutu were forced into exile into Tanzania and Congo to
flee another genocide of Hutu.
Civil War & Genocide
Main articles: Rwandan Civil War and Rwandan Genocide
In 1986, Yoweri Museveni's guerrilla forces in Uganda had succeeded in taking
control of that country, overthrowing the Ugandan dictatorship of Milton Obote.
Many exiled refugee Rwandan Tutsis in Uganda had joined his rebel forces and had
then become part of the Ugandan military, now made up from Museveni's guerrilla
forces.
However, Ugandans resented the Rwandan presence in the new Ugandan army, and in
1986 Paul Kagame, a Tutsi who had become head of military intelligence in
Museveni's new Ugandan army, founded the RPF, the Rwandan Patriotic Front,
together with Fred Rwigema. They began to train their army to invade Rwanda from
Uganda, and many Tutsis who had been in the Ugandan military now joined the RPF.
Kagame also received military training in the United States. In 1991, a radio
station broadcasting RPF propaganda from Uganda was established by the RPF.
In response to the RPF threat, the Rwandan Hutu military government of Juvénal
Habyarimana also began training young Hutu men into informal armed bands called
Interahamwe (a term roughly meaning "those who fight together").
In 1990, the Tutsi-dominated RPF invaded Rwanda from Uganda. Some members allied
with the military dictatorship government of Habyarimana responded in 1993 to
the RPF invasion with a radio station that began anti-Tutsi propaganda and with
pogroms against Tutsis, whom it claimed were trying to re-enslave the Hutus.
Nevertheless, after 3 years of fighting and multiple prior "cease-fires", the
government and the RPF signed a "final" cease-fire agreement in August 1993,
known as the Arusha accords, in order to form a power sharing government.
Neither side appeared ready to accept the accords, however, and fighting between
the two sides continued unabated.
The situation worsened when the first elected Burundian president, Melchior
Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by the Burundian Tutsi-dominated army in
October 1993. In Burundi, a fierce civil war then erupted between Tutsi and Hutu
following the army's massacre, and tens of thousands, both Hutu and Tutsi, were
killed in this conflict.
This conflict spilled over the border into Rwanda and caused the fragile Rwandan
Arusha accords to quickly crumble. Tutsi-Hutu hatred rapidly intensified.
Although the UN sent a peacekeeping force named the United Nations Assistance
Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), it was underfunded, under-staffed, and largely
ineffective in the face of a two country civil-war, as detailed in
Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire's book Shake Hands with the Devil.
During the armed conflict in Rwanda, the RPF was blamed for the bombing of the
capital Kigali. On April 6, 1994, the Hutu president of Rwanda and the second
newly elected president of Burundi (also a Hutu) were both assassinated when
their jet was shot down, allegedly by missiles from the Ugandan army, while
landing in Kigali. A French tribunal has blamed this action on Kagame's RPF
forces. Kagame, an expert in military intelligence and propaganda, however, has
always countered that disgruntled Hutus killed their own Hutu president, as well
as the Hutu president of Burundi, to justify a genocide that was then
"perpetrated by the French" as well as the Hutu militias.
In response to the April killing of the two state presidents, over the next
three months (April - July 1994) the Hutu-led military and Interahamwe militia
groups killed about 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in the "Rwandan genocide".
The Tutsi-led RPF continued to advance on the capital, however, and soon
occupied the northern, eastern, and southern parts of the country by June.
Thousands of additional civilians were killed in the conflict. UN member states
refused to answer UNAMIR's requests for increased troops and money. Meanwhile,
although French troops were dispatched to "stabilize the situation," they were
only able to evacuate foreign nationals.
Between July and August, 1994, Kagame's Tutsi-led RPF troops first entered
Kigali and soon thereafter captured the rest of the country. Over 2 million
Hutus then fled the country, causing the Great Lakes refugee crisis. Many went
to Eastern Zaire (notably Northern Kivu province).
Between 1994 and 1996, the Tutsi-controlled RPA government of Paul Kagame
continued its retribution against Hutu in Rwanda. To continue its attacks
against the Hutu Interahamwe forces, which had fled to Eastern Zaire, Kagame's
RPA forces invaded Zaire in 1996, following talks by Kagame with US officials
earlier the same year.
In this invasion Kagame allied with Laurent Kabila, a marxist revolutionary in
Eastern Zaire who had been a foe of Zaire's long-time dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.
Kagame was also supported by Yoweri Museveni's Ugandan forces, with whom he had
trained in the late 1980s, which then invaded Eastern Zaire from the northeast.
This became known as the First Congo War.
In this war, militarized Tutsi refugees in the South Kivu area of Zaire, known
as Banyamulenge to disguise their original Rwandan Tutsi heritage, allied with
the Tutsi RDF forces against the Hutu refugees in the North Kivu area, which
included the Interahamwe militias.
In the midst of this conflict, Kabila, whose primary intent had been to depose
Mobutu, moved his forces to Kinshasa, and in 1997, the same year Mobutu Sese
Seko died of prostate cancer, Kabila captured Kinshasa and then became president
of Zaire, which he then renamed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
With Kabila's success in the Congo, he no longer desired an alliance with the
Tutsi-RDF Rwandan army and the Ugandan forces, and in August 1998 ordered both
the Ugandans and Tutsi-Rwandan army out of the DRC.
However, neither Kagame's Rwandan Tutsi forces nor Meseveni's Ugandan forces had
any intention of leaving the Congo, and the framework of the Second Congo War
was laid.
In the Second Congo War, Tutsi militias among the Banyamulenge in the Congo
province of Kivu desired to annex themselves to Rwanda (now dominated by Tutsi
forces under the Kagame government). Kagame also desired this, both to increase
the resources of Rwanda by adding those of the Kivu region, and also to add the
Tutsi population, which the Banyamulenge represented, back into Rwanda, thereby
reinforcing his political base.
In the Second Congo War, Uganda and Rwanda attempted to wrest much of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo from Kabila's forces, and nearly succeeded.
However, due to the personal financial stakes of many leaders around Southern
Africa in the Congo (such as Robert Mugabe and Sam Nujoma), armies were sent to
aid Kabila, most notably those of Angola and Zimbabwe. These armies were able to
beat back Kagame's Rwandan-Tutsi advances and the Ugandan forces.
In the great conflict between 1998 and 2002, during which Congo was divided into
three parts, multiple opportunistic militias, called Mai Mai, sprang up,
supplied by the arms dealers around the world that profit in small arms trading,
including the US, Russia, China, and other countries. Over 3.8 million people
died in the conflict, as well as the majority of animals in the region.
Laurent Kabila was assassinated in the DRC (Congo) in 2001, and was succeeded by
his son, Joseph Kabila. It is claimed by many in the Congo that Joseph Kabila
was the son of a Rwandan Tutsi mother and his real father was a friend of
Laurent Kabila's; he was adopted by Laurent Kabila only when Laurent took
Joseph's Rwandan mother as one of his many wives. Joseph speaks fluent
Kinyarwanda and was trained in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and China. After
serving 5 years as the transitional government president, he was freely-elected
in the Congo to be president, in 2006, largely on the basis of his support in
the Eastern Congo.
Ugandan and Rwandan forces within Congo began to battle each other for
territory, and Congolese Mai Mai militias, most active in the South and North
Kivu provinces (in which most refugees were located) took advantage of the
conflict to settle local scores and widen the conflict, battling each other,
Ugandan and Rwandan forces, and even Congolese forces.
Ironically, it was the Banyamulenge, the large Tutsi refugee group in the Congo,
that appeared to have ended the war. Tired of the prolonged war, they rebelled
against Kagame's Rwandan troops and forced them to return to Rwanda, allowing
Kabila to retake control of the Eastern Congo with the aid of the Angolan and
Zimbabwean forces.
Rwandan RPF troops finally left Congo in 2002, leaving a wake of disease and
malnutrition that continued to kill thousands every month. However, Rwandan
rebels continue to operate (as of May 2007) in the northeast Congo and Kivu
regions. These are claimed to be remnants of Hutu forces that can not return to
Rwanda without facing genocide charges, yet are not welcomed in Congo and are
pursued by DRC troops. In the first 6 months of 2007, over 260,000 civilians
were displaced. Congolese Mai Mai rebels also continue to threaten people and
wildlife. Although a large scale effort at disarming militias has succeeded,
with the aid of the UN troops, the last militias are only being disarmed in
2007. However, fierce confrontations in the northeast regions of the Congo
between local tribes in the Ituri region, initially uninvolved with the initial
Hutu-Tutsi conflict but drawn into the Second Congo War, still continue.
In Burundi, the Burundi Civil War from 1993 to 2006 coincided with the First and
Second Congo Wars. At least 300,000 Burundians were killed, and refugees into
Tanzania and Congo contributed to the region's major population displacements.
In August 2005, a Hutu born-again Christian, Pierre Nkurunziza, was elected as
Burundi president. At least three cease-fires between rebel groups and Burundi
forces, in 2003, 2005, and September 2006, have been signed.
Rwandan stability is undoubtedly dependent both on stability in Eastern DRC
(Congo) and in Burundi.
Post-civil war
After the Tutsi RPF took control of the government, Kagame installed a Hutu
president, Pasteur Bizimungu, in 1994. Many believed him to be a puppet
president, however, and when Bizimungu became critical of the Kagame government
in 2000, he was removed as president and Kagame took over the presidency
himself. Bizimungu immediately founded an opposition party (the PDR), but it was
banned by the Kagame government. Bizimungu was arrested in 2002 for treason,
sentenced to 15 years in prison, but released by a presidential pardon in 2007.
After it took control of the government in 1994 following the civil war, the
Tutsi-dominated RDF party then wrote the history of the genocide and enshrined
its version of events in the current constitution of 2003. It made it a crime to
question the government's version of the genocide. In 2004, a ceremony was held
in Kigali at the Gisozi Memorial (sponsored by the Aegis Trust and attended by
many foreign dignitaries) to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the genocide,
and the country observes a national day of mourning each year on April 7. Hutu
Rwandan genocidal leaders are on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda, in the Rwandan National Court system, and, most recently, through
the informal Gacaca village justice program . Recent reports highlight a number
of reprisal killings of survivors for giving evidence at Gacaca.
Many claim that memorialisation of the genocide without admission of the crimes
by the Tutsi-RDF are one sided, and is part of ongoing propaganda by the
Tutsi-led Rwandan government, which is essentially a one-party government at
this time. The author of Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina, has demanded that Paul
Kagame, the current Rwandan president, be tried as a war criminal. Kagame's
invasion of Rwanda in 1990 and of Zaire / Congo in the First and Second Congo
Wars was responsible for the death of more than 4 million people during those
conflicts.
The first elections since the invasion of Rwanda by Kagame's forces in 1990 (and
the subsequent creation of a military government by Kagame in 1994) were held in
2003. Kagame, who had already been appointed president by his own government in
2000, was then "elected" president by over 95% of the vote, with little
opposition. Opposition parties were banned until just before the 2003 elections.
Following the elections, in 2004, a constitutional amendment banned political
parties from denoting themselves as being aligned with "Hutu" or "Tutsi."
However, the RPF, a primarily Tutsi political organisation, was not disbanded
and therefore continues its dominance. Most observers therefore do not believe
the 2003 elections to have been fair nor representative. Elections have been
compared to the "fair elections" of Robert Mugabe's ZANU party in Zimbabwe. The
next presidential elections are due to be held in 2010.
Rebuilding
Rwanda today struggles to heal and rebuild, but shows signs of rapid
development. Some Rwandans continue to grapple with the legacy of almost 60
years of intermittent war.
One agent in Rwanda's rebuilding effort is the Benebikira Sisters, a Catholic
order of nuns whose ministry is dedicated to education and healthcare. Since the
genocide, the Sisters have housed and supported hundreds of orphans, and created
and staffed schools to educate the next generation of Rwandans.
The major markets for Rwandan exports are Belgium, Germany, and China. In April
2007, an investment and trade agreement, 4 years in the making, was worked out
between Belgium and Rwanda. Belgium contributes €25-35 million per year to
Rwanda.
Belgian co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
continues to develop and rebuild agricultural practices in the country. It has
distributed agricultural tools and seed to help rebuild the country. Belgium
also helped in re-launching fisheries in Lake Kivu, at a value of US$470,000, in
2001.
In Eastern Rwanda, The Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, along with
Partners in Health, are helping to improve agricultural productivity, improve
water and sanitation and health services, and help cultivate international
markets for agricultural products.
Since 2000, the Rwandan government has expressed interest in transforming the
country from agricultural subsistence to a knowledge-based economy, and plans to
provide high-speed broadband across the entire country.
Politics
M Politics of Rwanda
After its military victory in July 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front organized a
coalition government loosely based on the 1993 Arusha accords. The National
Movement for Democracy and Development – Habyarimana's party that had instigated
and implemented the genocidal ideology – along with the CDR (another Hutu
extremist party) were banned, with most of its leaders either arrested or in
exile. It is not clear whether any Hutu parties are currently allowed in Rwanda.
After the 1994 genocide, the RPF installed a single-party "coalition-based"
government. Paul Kagame became Vice-President. In 2000, he was elected president
of Rwanda by the parliament.
A new constitution, written by the Kagame government, was adopted by referendum
in 2003. The first post-war presidential and legislative elections were held in
August and September 2003, respectively. Opposition parties were banned until
just before the elections, so no true opposition to the ruling RPF existed. The
RPF-led government has continued to promote reconciliation and unity amongst all
Rwandans as enshrined in the new constitution that forbids any political
activity or discrimination based on race, ethnicity or religion. Right of return
to Rwandans displaced between 1959 and 1994, primarily Tutsis, was enshrined in
the constitution, but no mention of the return of Hutus that fled Kagame's RPF
forces into the Congo in the great refugee crisis of 1994-1998 or subsequently,
is made in the constitution. Nevertheless, the constitution guarantees "All
persons originating from Rwanda and their descendants shall, upon their request,
be entitled to Rwandan nationality" and "No Rwandan shall be banished from the
country."
By law, at least a third of the Parliament representation must be female. It is
believed that women will not allow the mass killings of the past to be repeated.
Rwanda topped a recently conducted global survey on the percentage of women in
Parliament with as much as 49 percent female representation, currently the
highest in the world.
The Senate has at least 26 members, each with an 8 year term. Eight posts are
appointed by the president. 12 are elected representatives of the 11 provinces
and the city of Kigali. Four members are designated by the Forum of Political
Organizations (a quasi-governmental organization that currently is an arm of the
dominant political party); one member is a university lecturer or researcher
elected by the public universities; one member is a university lecturer or
researcher elected by the private universities. Any past President has permanent
membership in the Senate. Under this scheme, up to 12 appointees to the Senate
are appointed by the President and his party. The elected members must be
approved by the Supreme Court.
The 14 Supreme Court members are designated by the President and confirmed by
the Senate.
The Chamber of Deputies has 80 members, each with a 5 year term; 24 posts are
reserved for women and are elected by province; 53 posts can be men or women and
are also are elected by local elections; 2 posts are elected by the National
Youth Council; 1 post is elected by Federation of the Associations of the
Disabled.
The President and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies must be from different
political parties. The President is elected every 7 years, and may serve a
maximum of 2 terms.
In 2006, however, the structure of the country was reorganized. It is unclear
how this affects current elected representation proportions.
The current Rwandan government, led by Paul Kagame, has been praised by many for
establishing security and promoting reconciliation and economic development, but
is also criticised by some for being overly militant and opposed to dissent. The
country now has many international visitors and is regarded as a safer place for
tourists, with only a single isolated mortar attack in early 2007 around
Volcanoes National Park near Gisenyi.
With new independent radio stations and other media arising, Rwanda is
attempting a free press, but there are reports of journalists disappearing and
being apprehended whenever articles question the government. The transmitter for
Radio France International was banned by the government in Rwanda in 2006 when
it became critical of Kagame and the RPF.
Administrative divisions
Rwanda is divided into five provinces (intara) and subdivided into thirty
districts (akarere). The provinces are:
* North Province
* East Province
* South Province
* West Province
* Kigali Province
Prior to 1 January 2006, Rwanda was composed of twelve provinces, but these were
abolished in full and redrawn as part of a program of decentralization and
reorganization.
Geography
M Geography of Rwanda
This small country is located near the center of Africa, a few degrees south of
the Equator. It is separated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Lake
Kivu and the Ruzizi River valley to the west; it is bounded on the north by
Uganda, to the east by Tanzania, and to the south by Burundi. The capital,
Kigali, is located in the centre of the country.
Rwanda's countryside is covered by grasslands and small farms extending over
rolling hills, with areas of rugged mountains that extend southeast from a chain
of volcanoes in the northwest. The divide between the Congo and Nile drainage
systems extends from north to south through western Rwanda at an average
elevation of almost 9,000 feet (2,740 m). On the western slopes of this
ridgeline, the land slopes abruptly toward Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River
valley, and constitutes part of the Great Rift Valley. The eastern slopes are
more moderate, with rolling hills extending across central uplands at gradually
reducing altitudes, to the plains, swamps, and lakes of the eastern border
region. Therefore the country is also fondly known as "Land of a Thousand Hills"
(Pays des milles collines). In 2006, a British-led exploration announced that
they had located the longest headstream of the River Nile in Nyungwe Forest.
Climate
Rwanda is a tropical country; its high elevation makes the climate temperate. In
the mountains, frost and snow are possible. The average daily temperature near
Lake Kivu, at an altitude of 1,463 m (4,800 feet) is 23°C (73°F). Rwanda is
considered the lightning capital of the world, due to intense daily monsoons
during the two rainy seasons (February–May and September–December). Annual
rainfall averages 830 mm (31 inches) but is generally heavier in the western and
northwestern mountains than in the eastern savannas.
Transport
M Transport in Rwanda
The transport system in Rwanda centres primarily around the road network, with
paved roads between the capital, Kigali and most other major cities and towns in
the country. Rwanda is also linked by road with other countries in East Africa,
via which the majority of the country's imports and exports are made. The
country has an international airport at Kigali, serving one domestic and several
international destinations, and also has limited water transport between the
port cities on Lake Kivu. A large amount of investment in the transport
infrastructure has been made by the government since the 1994 genocide, with aid
from the USA, European Union, China, Japan and others.
The principal form of public transport in the country is the share taxi, with
express routes linking the major cities and local services serving most villages
along the main roads of the country. Coach services are available to various
destinations in neighbouring countries.
In 2006, the Chinese government proposed funding a study for the building of a
railway link from Bujumbura in Burundi to Kigali in Rwanda to Isaki in Tanzania.
A delegation from the American railroad BNSF also met with President Paul Kagame
to discuss a route from Kigali to Isaki and at the same time the government
announced that it had selected a German consulting company to undertake pilot
work for the proposed mail line.
Economy
M Economy of Rwanda
Rwanda is a rural country with about 90% of the population engaged in (mainly
subsistence) agriculture. It is landlocked with few natural resources and
minimal industry. Primary exports are coffee and tea, with the addition in
recent years of minerals (mainly Coltan, used in manufacture of electronic and
communication devices such as mobile phones) and flowers. Tourism also is a
growing sector, notably around ecotourism (Nyungwe Forest, Lake Kivu) and the
world famous and unique mountain gorillas in the Virunga park. It has a low
gross national product (GNP), and it has been identified as a Heavily Indebted
Poor Country (HIPC). In 2005, its economic performance and governance
achievements prompted International Funding Institutions to cancel nearly all
its debts.
According to the World Food Programme, it is estimated that 60% of the
population live below the poverty line and 10-12% of the population suffer from
food insecurity every year.
Land management is the single most important factor in the conflicts in East
Africa.
Interestingly, although the feudal system of land use disappeared with the
"Social Revolution" of 1959, sharecropping reappeared following the return of
the RPF government in 1994, with the land use policies of the new RPF government
being formalized in the 2005 land use laws.
These land-use laws were meant to transform a jumble of small, fragmented, and
minimally productive plots into more prosperous larger holdings producing for
global (as well as for local) markets. The government is to determine how land
holdings will be regrouped, which crops will be grown, and which animals will be
raised. If farmers fail to follow the national plan, their land may be
requisitioned with no compensation, and their land can be given to others.
Although a movement for individual ownership of land arose at the time of
independence, land scarcity over much of Rwanda made this impractical over the
long term. The current land reform system is somewhat similar to the "igikingi"
system of land control that the Tutsi monarchy, and then the Belgian colonial
government, used prior to the time leading up to independence.
Northwest Rwanda had traditionally used a system of locally controlled land
collectivisation schemes, which were not under the Mwami's central control,
called "ubokonde bw' isuka" in pre-colonial times.
It is therefore the northwest of Rwanda that objects most strongly to the
central control of land policy reminiscent of igikingi, taking control away from
local owners. Some farmers who resisted the policy when it was begun in the
1990s were punished by fines or jail sentences; the policy remains the source of
many disputes.
The law also affirms the policy of obligatory grouped residence under which
persons living in dispersed homesteads must move to government-established
"villages" called imidugudu.
Instead of each family living on his own land, communal villages would be
re-established, freeing up, presumably, more arable land.
When implemented on a large-scale in the late 1990s, authorities in some cases
used force, fines, and prison terms to make Rwandans relocate.
At least two imidugudu were created in northwestern Rwanda in 2005, leading to
land loss for local farmers. Although the law claimed to accept the validity of
customary rights to land, it rejected the customary use of marshlands by the
poor and abolished important rights of prosperous landlords (abakonde) in the
northwest.
However, the policy also ensured the ability of the government to exercise
eminent domain for environmental reasons, which it did in 2007 by evicting
encroaching settlers from the shores of Lake Kivu in an effort to protect the
fragile environment there.
The government has also looked at ways to extract methane from Lake Kivu to help
with the country's energy needs.
There is no capital market in Rwanda in the traditional sense. The government
primarily provided economic services until recently. The monetary and financial
markets are dominated by 9 banks and 6 insurance companies in which the state
continues to be a major shareholder. Over 200 micro-credit institutions (also
known as micro-finance institutions), often financed by international donors,
sprung up in Rwanda (especially since 2004), but many were unregistered,
unregulated, and often mismanaged. Several were shut down by the Rwandan
government in 2006.
In September 2006, the World Bank approved a US$10 million grant to Rwanda to
develop information and communication technology.
Demographics
M Demographics of Rwanda
Most Rwandans speak Kinyarwanda. Before the arrival of European colonists, there
was no written history. Today, the nation is roughly 84% Hutu, 15% Tutsi, and 1%
Twa, with smaller minorities of South Asians, Arabs, French, British, and
Belgians. The nation is some 56.5% Roman Catholic, 26% Protestant, 11.1%
Adventist, and 4.6% Muslim, original beliefs 0.1%, none 1.7% (2001) . But
according to the Washington Post Muslims make 14% of the population .
Culture
Further information: Music of Rwanda, Literature of Rwanda and List of writers
from Rwanda
The pygmy Twa are considered one of the oldest races on earth. Along with the
Efé and other BaMbuti of the Ituri region, the BayAka of Central African
Republic, the San (Bushmen) of Namibia, and the Hadzabe of Tanzania, they
represent the remains of the some of the oldest cultures on earth. As with some
of the other groups, some Twa still pursue a hunter-gatherer type of existence
(in the Nyungwe Forest National Park), although the majority have been forced
into menial positions in society with the ongoing loss of their land. With the
new emphasis on "non-racialism" in Rwanda, their rights are even fewer and they
occupy the fringes of Rwandan society.
The "Intore," once the elite of the traditional Tutsi army, were not only
trained as military but also in high jump and dance. They were known for their
remarkable technique allowing them to jump over 7 feet (2.4 metres). The Intore
became worldwide famous as dancers in 1958 when the World Expo was held in
Brussels. Today Intore dancers are part of the rich Rwandan folklore.
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