Politics and Power

Ever since the uproar of violence in 1994 and the conflicts that led up to the genocide, the Rwandan is still not entirely stable. President Paul Kagame is currently leading the post-genocide government of Rwanda. He is of Tutsi descent and his rebel force ended the genocide in 1994 (Chothia 2010). He was elected president in 2003 and in 2010 (Chothia 2010). He has been accused for repressing freedom and was known for his anti-genocide legislation. From the time of the genocide to Kagame’s election, the Rwandan government did not have an actual constitution, but was governed by a combination of the Arusha Accords and Preseident Habyarimana’s 1991 constitution (Gasmagara 2007). Kagame created a new constitution for Rwanda that sought to prevent any conflicts over power especially between the Tutsis and the Hutus. However, his strong opposition to any form of dissent has caused some disruption of freedom, especially in the media. Furthermore, he supported the rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo to overthrow its president, delving into another war, while his own country is still recovering from its own civil war. Kagame, with opposing parties from the Hutu ethnic group, is growing intolerant to political threats because he failed to end the ethnic conflict that caused the genocide in the first place. Therefore, although it has been 20 years since the genocide, there is still Hutu and Tutsi resentment, especially in politics.

References

Chothia, Farouk
          2010 Profile: Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, BBC News. December 10. Electronic Document. http://www.bbc.com/news/10479882, accessed on March 25, 2014.

Gasmagara, Wellars
          2007 The constitution making process in Rwanda: Lessons to be learned. 7^th Global Forum for Reinventing Government, June. Electronic Document. http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan02662 0.pdf, accessed on March 25, 2014.

A brief history of the Tutsi and Hutu Conflict

About 400 years ago, the “once” nomadic Tutsi tribe moved into the area of East Africa, where the Hutu tribe has already settled 100 years before (Admin 1999). They integrated themselves with the Hutu people, adopting their culture. However, the Tutsis still continued living off of cattle herding while the Hutus were subsistent farmers. Economic differences divided the two groups living in the same community, the Tutsi dominating the Hutu. According to historian, Congolese Professor George, ‘“…the only differences between the two groups were economic rather than ethnic,”’ (Admin 1999). Colonization of Rwanda-Urundi by Belgium only allowed Tutsi’s to have power education, causing the country to split. The class-conflict caused an outbreak in genocide between the two tribes, greatly affecting the Tutsis. During the, Rwandan genocide in 1994 about 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 100 days, most were Tutsi (BBC 2011).

This picture represents class differences among the Tutsi and Hutu based on attire.

Resources:

BBC News Africa

        2011 Rwanda: How the genocide happened. BBC News, May 17. Electronic document,                                                             http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13431486, accessed on February 24, 2014.

The Dark Corner

        2011 Saving the world one daughter at a time. The DARK corner. Electronic document,                                                             http://thedarkcorner.com/?paged=2, accessed on February 24, 2014.

Admin

        1999 The Heart of the Hutu-Tutsi Conflict. PBS News MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, October 8. Electronic                                 document, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/africa-july-dec99-rwanda_10-08/, accessed on February 24,                     2014.