Rwanda History 1960 to present

   

A genocide memorial (one of hundreds in Rwanda) that is at my site.  In the memorial, there are numerous bodies laid to rest from the genocide.

           I’m writing the second in a two series blog on the history of Rwanda.  The history of Rwanda has been separated into two parts: pre-1960 and post-1960.  For the history of Rwanda from prehistory to 1960, see the blog posted on 11/29/10.  The main reason that the blog was separated into two parts is because East African countries started to gain independence around 1960, which resulted in a paradigm shift in traditional East African politics, lifestyles, financial investments, and infrastructure.

            The United Nations decided to split Rwanda and Burundi due to different philosophies on governing, and Rwanda was officially independent in 1962.  The first independent government was lead by Prime Minister Kayibanda and his Hutu majority.  The next ten years would be a mixture of Tutsis and Hutus killing each other, both inside Rwanda and in the neighboring countries where Tutsis would seek refuge.  Furthermore, the new independent government made attempts to limit the educational and business opportunities to Tutsis. 

            A new leader, Habayarimana, became a rising figure in Rwanda and had the backing of the majority due to a slaughter of Hutus in the southern border country of Burundi.  These new attacks made the intertribal tensions huge again in Rwanda, and resulted in the military coup lead by Habayarimana in 1973.  The coup would be classic military style, with the slaughter of Kayibanda (the former prime minister), his wife, and many cabinet and high level officials. 

            The 1970s and 1980s would be a period of general economic prosperity (including the Peace Corps entering the country).  In 1986, General Museveni became president of Uganda after being victorious in the Ugandan civil war (As of February 2011, Museveni is still the president of Uganda.  Being a president in an African country for twenty-five years is quite common).  One of the major players in Museveni’s army was Paul Kagame.  With the backing of Museveni, Paul Kagame started the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) with exiled Tutsis in Uganda and started the Rwandan Civil War in 1990. 

            The Rwandan Civil War was comprised of the Belgian, French, Congolese, and Rwandan armies against the RPF and Ugandan government.  The next three years would be the RPF advancing and retreating from Kigali, and the Rwandan army brutally killing, arresting, and neglecting Tutsis and sympathetic Hutus.  By 1993, the RPF was on 15 miles from Kigali, and Habayarimana was cornered into peace negotiations in Tanzania.  The peace negotiations ended on April 6, 1994, when Habayarimana and the Burundian president were flying back to Kigali.  The plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while on approach to land.  Tutsis were blamed for the crash, and the genocide would start only hours after the plane had crashed.     

            For the next 100 days, road blocks would be set up in order to kill Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers.  The murders were children, wives, husbands, and long time friends.  Once Paul Kagame and the RPF finally took control of Rwanda and pushed the Interahamwe into Burundi (country bordering to the south) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, country bordering to the east), the genocide ended.  In the end, an estimated 1,000,000 people were killed, and Rwanda was in tatters. 

            While Rwanda tried to recover from the scars of the genocide, the country still faced issues with the Interahamwe threatening refugees to not return to Rwanda.  By 1996, the Rwandan army invaded the DRC and forced the rebels deep into the Congo.  This allowed nearly all the refugees to return, but started a new issue of repatriation.  Due to land constrictions, Rwanda deforested some of Akagera National Park in order to place refugees back in Rwanda. 

            Paul Kagame has been president of Rwanda since 2000, and recently won an election that will make him the president until 2017.  Since 1994, Rwanda has outlawed identity cards (showing if a person was a Hutu or a Tutsi), joined the East African Community and Commonwealth, and enjoyed peace and prosperity.  Tourism has grown rapidly and infrastructure has improved dramatically.  In some years, Rwanda has had their economy grow by 20 percent.  However, there are still scars to heal and work to do.