Citation
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NAIROBI, KENYA
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ONE of Africa’s smallest
countries, Rwanda has
seen some of the conti-
nent’s biggest massacres of the
past 31 years, Now. the killing has
begun anew, sparked by the same
divisive issues of the past: scarcity
of land and ethnic hatred.
The latest round of violence
began Oct. 1, when well-armed
Rwandan refugees living in
Uganda invaded Rwanda in an
attempt to overthrow the govern-
ment. Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni said the rebels, mainly
Rwandan refugees from the mi-
nority Tutsi tribe, have told him
that they would agree to an im-
mediate cease-fire.
Maj. Gen. Juvénal Habyari-
mana, Rwanda’s president, on
Monday ruled out peace talks
with rebels until a cease-fire was
firmly in place. But settlement of
the land and ethnic issues is likely
to take years.
Rwanda is a tiny, landlocked
country about the size of West
Virginia, but with some 8 million
people, making it one of the most
crowded countries in the world.
Both the cities and the mountain-
ous rural areas are packed. A des-
perate search for farmland has
forced farmers to cultivate right
up the sides of mountains and
steep hills, “The land is satu-
rated,” says René LeMarchand, a-
professor at the University of
Florida.
Now thousands of Rwandan
rebels, many of them refugees
who were serving as mercenaries
in Uganda's military, want to gain
power and give the estimated ,
250,000 to 1 million Rwandan
refugees the right to go home.
But "there's simply no room for a
massive influx of refugees into
the country,” says Mr. LeMar-
chand, a Rwanda expert.
Longstanding ethnic hatred
has also divided the country,-Most
of the rebels are Tutsi. They com-
prise only 10 to 15 percent of
Rwanda’s population, but ruled
the country as a kingdom from
the 16th century until 1959, That
year, the Hutu, comprising about
85 to 90 percent of the popula-
tion, overthrew their feudal mas-
ters, massacring many Tutsi.
The Hutu formed a govern-
ment and have ruled since then.
In 1973, General Habyarimana, a
northern Hutu and then minister
of defense, seized power from the
first Hutu president. ‘From time
to time, there have been further
flare-ups between the Hutu ma-
jority and the tall Tutsi minority,
resulting in more massacres. Tutsi
are resented by many hutu as an
educated elite who are often suc-
cessful in business. According to
critics of the Rwandan govern-
ment, Tutsi are blocked from
high-level civil service or Army
posts.
As a result of the massacres,
hundreds of thousands of Tutsi
fled. Many today live in countries
around Rwanda, including Zaire,
Tanzania, and Uganda. Some be-
came mercenaries, working for
Zaire’s government and assisting
Ugandan President Museveni’s
successful guerrilla movement in
the mid-1980s. Having worked
their way up to key positions in
the Ugandan military, the Rwan-
dan mercenaries had access to
large amounts of weapons, which
they took with them to invade
Rwanda.
“People were complaining
about them [the Rwandan merce-
naries] and their mistreatment of
Ugandans,” says a Ugandan offi-
cial in Kampala, Uganda's capital.
Museveni denies complicity in the
rebel invasion of Rwanda.
A Rwandan rebel supporter
contacted by phone in Uganda
told the Monitor: “We want to re-
turn and stop the injustice...
The government has been so exploited...
There's no free elections
Social services are not
[...]
Hutu fighting with them. It is
clear to what extent this is t
but it does appear that ma
Hutu are strongly critical of
Hutu government, They claim
favors only Hutu from the presi-
dent's home area in the north.
Western diplomat who has live
in Rwanda agrees that Habyari-
mana favors his own clan. A well
educated Hutu in Nairobi agrees:
‘The government
stays in power through an “effi-
cient system of repression...
There's a lot of discontent in the
country among Hutu.”
Jean Paul Harroy, a scholar at
the University of Brussels, says
Habyarimana's government is
“good and serious about devel-
opment.” Rwanda acts no differ-
ently from most governments in
favoring the president’s clan, he
says.
Rwanda’s real problem, he
adds, is declining world prices for
coffee, the main cash crop. As for
the population crisis, Mr. Harroy
says the United Nations and
other donors could help relocate
many Rwandans to less popu-
lated regions, such as parts of
Zaire.
In their invasion, Tutsi rebels
counted on discontent to bring
many Rwandan Hutu to their
side. This has not happened. In-
stead, both Hutu and Tutsi civil-
ians have fled to Uganda and Ki-
gali, Rwanda’s capital.
In Nairobi, Rwandan Ambas-
sador Cyprien Habimana denied
reports that Rwandan troops had
massacred civilians. All civilians
- "every one" of them-— had fled
the area by Oct. 2, one day after
the rebel invasion, he told report-
ers. But an international develop-
ment official told the Monitor
that his organization was working
in that area up to mid-October
and had seen Rwandan civilians.
Away from battle zones, other
massacres of Hutu civilians have
been reported: Mr. Habimana
says his government wants Euro-
ean Nations to set up a peace-
keeping force once a cease fire
is arranged. And just prior to
the outbreak of war, he says, his gov-
ernment began moving toward
multiparty elections.
