INDEPTH: RWANDA
History
CBC News Online | August 22, 2003
Rwanda was first colonized by Germany in the 1890s, but control passed to Belgium in 1919 after the First World War. Belgium ruled indirectly through the Rwandan king and, in 1935, introduced mandatory identification cards to Rwandans: those in possession of 10 or more cows were classified Batutsi, or Tutsi; those with fewer were called Bahutu, or Hutu. The king and the Belgians favoured the more affluent Batutsi and installed them as vassals in charge of governing the regions of Rwanda.
Unsatisfied with the balance of power, the Hutu called for more representation in government. When King Mutara III died in 1959 and his Tutsi successor, Kigeri V, was appointed, the Hutus revolted and violence erupted.
In 1962, Rwanda gained its independence, after rejecting its ties with Belgium in a referendum. That year, Grégoire Kayibanda, a Hutu, was elected the first president.
This marked the beginning of wide-spread persecution of the Tutsi. Throughout the 1960s and '70s they were systematically murdered and many fled to neighbouring countries. According to Rwanda's government Web site, two million Rwandans fled to Uganda, Congo and Tanzania to escape the violence.
In 1973, Kayibanda was overthrown in a military coup and Maj. Gen. Juvénal Habyarimana - also a Hutu - was installed as the new leader. He was officially elected five years later after drafting a new constitution, and remained in power until 1994. Among the changes made by Habyarimana during his regime was an ethnic quota for government jobs, allowing the Tutsi only nine per cent of all federal positions.
The frustrated Tutsi wanted Habyarimana pulled from power. In 1987, the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), a group of Tutsi and Tutsi sympathizers, was established by supporters of the former Rwandese Alliance for National Unity.
In October 1990, the new party launched a so-called "war of liberation" on the government. Thousands of RPF fighters streamed in from neighbouring countries attacking Hutu government forces before French and Zairian troops intervened and forced a shaky ceasefire in 1991.
The bloodletting continued in the years following, as thousands more Hutu and Tutsi died in massacres around Rwanda. The bloodiest year by far was 1994. In April of that year, President Habyarimana died when his airplane was shot down outside Kigali. Although no group was officially held responsible, the killing is thought by many to have been carried out by Hutu extremists who could then shift blame to the Tutsi.
The killing of Habyarimana proved to be the opening act of the worst genocide Rwanda has seen. Hutu extremists vowed revenge for the killing and began to systematically murder Tutsi and moderate Hutu. The attacks sparked counterattacks by Tutsi.
Fearing for their lives, Tutsi, moderate Hutu, NGO workers and foreign nationals fled the country as the Red Cross reported that tens of thousands had died in the first days of killing.
By mid-May, one month after the killing began, the Red Cross estimated half a million Rwandans had been killed in the massacre. By July, the RPF took Kigali and drove Hutu extremists out of the country. That marked an end to the 100-day bloodbath that left an estimated 800,000 dead.
The RPF immediately set up an interim government and agreed to submit to UN tribunal hearings into the mass killings. The tribunal - based in Arusha, northern Tanzania - delivered its first genocide conviction in September 1998, ruling in the case of Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former mayor accused of inciting the murder of 2,000 Tutsis.
With that decision, the tribunal became the first international court to hand down a conviction for genocide.
Since then, conditions in Rwanda have stabilized somewhat. Hutus and other Rwandans scattered abroad as a result of the killing have returned. A so-called Government of National Unity was formed with the intention of including both Hutu and Tutsi elements.
Paul Kagame, a Tutsi who returned to Rwanda in 1990 after fleeing for Uganda 30 years earlier, became president in 2000.
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Population: 7,810,056
Capital: Kigali
Government type: Republic
President: Paul Kagame
Ethnicity: 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi
Major languages: Kinyarwanda, English and French are official languages. Swahili is also used.
Major religions: Catholic (56.5%), Protestant (26%), Adventist (11.1%), Muslim (4.6%)
Location: Land-locked nation in central Africa, bordering Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Area: 26,338 km sq.
Life expectancy: 39.33 years
Median age: 18.1 years
Natural resources: Gold, tin ore, tungsten ore, methane
Canadian imports from: Coffee ($700,000)
Canadian exports to: Electrical machinery ($800,000 and worn clothing $100,000)
Sources: CIA World Factbook and Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
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