The views expressed in this report are those of front line and no other organisation. It was not until the 1990 invasion of the rwandan patriotic front rpf that the habyarimana regime 197394, capitalized on the ethnic make up of the rpf to cast tutsis as enemies of the state. Exile, reform, and the rise of the rwandan patriotic front. In april 1994, habyarimana was assassinated, and hutu hardliners promoting a. In 2000, in an effort to improve local service delivery, the rpfled. The countrys armed forces were originally known as the rwandan armed forces far, but following the victory of the rwandan patriotic front inkotanyi in the countrys civil war in 1994, a new organization, the rwandan patriotic army rpa, was created. The ruling rwandan patriotic front rpf led a coalition that include d four smaller parties. The protocols of agreement between the government of the republi of rwanda. Front patriotique rwandais, fpr is the ruling political party in rwanda. Habyarimana was not in favor of the amount of tutsi represented in the military, and generally wasnt.
Once the ruling elite of rwanda, the tutsi had been overthrown in a revolution beginning in 1959 and many had fled the country. Genocide in rwanda aprilmay 1994 human rights watch. While the war and genocide continued elsewhere, the rpf had to govern in the parts of the country that its forces had captured first. Finally, part ii explores the initial aims and present activities of the ingando project. On october 1, 1990 the rwandan patriotic army rpa, the armed wing of the rpf, invaded rwanda from uganda. The rwandan patriotic front, or the rpf, was a rebel group that was made up of mostly tutsi who had fled to uganda to escape persecution in rwanda. The majority of hutu soldiers and militia fled to zaire. The united nations launched its peacekeeping mission for rwanda in october 1993 to monitor a ceasefire agreement between the rwandan hutu government and the rebel rwandese patriotic front. The gersony report is a multipage pdf file available on request. In 2010 voters elected president paul kagame to a second sevenyear term with 93 percent of the vote. Between 1990 and 1994, the bagogwe people of northern rwanda were targeted by the habyarimana regime, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. The rwandan civil war 1 introduction rwanda is a small landlocked country in the great lakes region of eastcentral africa with a population of over ten million people in 2015 and is a former colony of belgium. The report also documents political prisoners, threats and violence. In 1993, after several failed efforts, the rwandan patriotic front rpf and the government of rwanda reached an agreement in tanzania, referred to as the arusha peace accords.
The rebels invaded rwanda in october 1990 and controlled parts of the north until 1993. The list of acronyms and abbreviations related to rpf rwandan patriotic front. Rwandan patriotic front rpf made up of exiled tutsis invades rwanda 1993. I wanted to flesh out some troubling details on how the rwandanled rebel alliance had swept across zaire so quickly, and do a profile on their financial. President paul kagame of the rwanda patriotic front rpf won 95%. Intervention force in rwanda, new york, april 30, 1994. In 1993, the arusha peace accord was signed in an attempt to resolve conflict between the hutu government and the rpf. The protocols of agreement between the government of the republi of rwanda and the rwandese patriotic front on powersharing. The rwandan patriotic fronts bloody record and the history. A reporters without borders team visited the country from 30 september to 7 october to investigate the case of the 60yearold member of the missionaries of africa society also known as the white fathers, who is former editor of the rwandan magazine dialogue and lived in rwanda from 1970 until 1994.
Rpf is a sad party these pictures speak for themselves. Rwandan patriotic front rpf defeated the rump government,4 forcing the flight of approximately 40,000 forces armees rwandaises far and interahamwe militia into neighboring zaire and tanzania. The largely tutsi rwandan patriotic front rpf, took power in 1994 and formed a government of national unity that functioned during the transitional period following the civil. The ruling rwandan patriotic front rpf ended the genocide by seizing. The rpf rebels invaded rwanda from neighboring uganda in october of 1990, reigniting tutsi hatred throughout rwanda. Airasx i peace agreement between the government of the. For a number of years the government engaged in crisis management, attempting to meet the basic needs of a traumatized population. With this realization, the rpf rwandan patriotic front turned to paul kagame, who was attending military leadership school in. Kagames rwandan patriotic front is a sad party therwandan. The rpf was comprised mainly of the children of mostly. In 1990, rwanda was attacked by the rwandan patriotic front rpf, a movement consisting mostly of refugees and children of refugees of the tutsi ethnic group.
The rpf joined the rwandan government as called for in the agreement. In the wake of the 1994 genocide, the rwandan patriotic front inherited the remnants of a highly centralized state administration. May 23, 2016 this page was last edited on 19 september 2019, at 16. Rwanda 2012 human rights report executive summary rwanda is a constitutional republic dominated by a strong presidency. The rwandan experience of fostering separated children by giorgia dona this is a condensed version of a case study produced by the government of rwanda,unicef and save the children alliance and published by unicef under the title of umwana wanjye ni uwawe ni uwacumy child is yours and ours. Fighting between the rpf and government troops continued throughout the 1990s. Part iii presents ingando as a central aspect of demobilization procedures for exsoldiers and excombatants, as well as a. Shortly after the rpf invasion, the far, with help from french and zairian troops, pushed the rebels back into uganda. Rwandan patriotic front and narrowly escaped death during the genocide. The rwandan patriotic front is the ruling political party in rwanda. Pauls college and medicine at lovanium university, both in. Cyrus reed in july i 994, the rwandan patriotic front rpf and its armed wing, the rwandan patriotic army rpa, entered kigali after routing the former regime and putting an end to months of genocide in which upwards of 500,000 had lost their lives. Rwanda country reports on human rights practices 2002 released by the bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor march 31, 2003 the largely tutsi rwandan patriotic front rpf took power in 1994 and declared a government of national unity that has functioned during the transition period following the civil war and genocide. Rwandan patriotic front rpf fred regime paul kagame president juvenal habyarimana to sign a peace agreement in 1993 the dictator of zaire, mobutu sese seko zaire current democratic republic of the congo agathe uwilingiyimana 19531994, rwandas final prime minister under habyarimana, 19931994.
Decades of attacks repression and killings set the. The civil war in rwanda is remembered for the events that took place in 1994, towards the end of the war. Museveni, managed to found a rebel force of their own, the rwandan patriotic army rpa. Front line dedicates this report to the rwandan human rights defenders who have risked their lives so that others might enjoy the rights provided by the universal declaration of human rights. In reading these documents, one is amazed by the precision with which the. Habyarimana studied humanities and mathematics at st. Look at these pictures of chairman paul kagame and his rwandan patriotic front rpf at a meeting held on may 31, 2018. The united nations assistance mission for rwanda unamir.
Their goal was to overthrow habyarimana and his pre dominantly hutu government, and to clear the way for the return of tutsi exiles from abroad. Led by president paul kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing. There were similar attacks orchestrated against people of kibuye, butare and elsewhere in rwanda. The climate in which the upcoming elections take place is the culmination of years of repression, said muthoni wanyeki, a mnesty international. Genocide of rwandan utsi 1994 medecins sans frontieres. Democratic front for the liberation of rwanda fdlr last update. In august 1994, the exfarinterahamwe began an insurgency from refugee camps in eastern. By august, another one to two million had fled from rwanda. Peace accords that take place in arusha, tanzania in 1993 to cease conflict between the rwandan patriotic front and the rwanda government. Rwandan patriotic front southern african development community southern agricultural growth corridor of tanzania strategy for revitalising agriculture kenya tanzania agriculture and food security investment plan tracking development research project the national alliance kenya tanzania national business council tanzania revenue authority. The rwandan defense was weakened by state bankruptcy and. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page.
In 1990, this rebel army invaded rwanda and forced hutu president juvenal habyalimana into signing an accord which mandated that the hutus and tutsis would share power. As a result, over 200,000 tutsis fled to neighboring countries and formed a rebel guerrilla army, the rwandan patriotic front. Rwanda is a constitutional republic dominated by a strong presidency. Rpf rwandan patriotic front was formed in 1985 as a political group of tutsi nationalist exiles who demanded the right to return to their homeland as citizens and an end to social discrimination against the tutsi in rwanda. Sexual violence against women and girls during the war in the democratic republic of congo chapter 4. From october 1990 onwards, rpf militants from uganda returned to rwandan territory and blended in with the tutsi population. Formation of the rwandan patriotic front bodell construction. The rwandan patriotic front rpf, a rebel movement dominated by tutsi exiles in uganda, invaded rwanda in october 1990, setting off a civil war that lasted almost four years.
A threeyear civil war pitting the predominantly tutsi rwandan patriotic army rpa against the predominantly hutu government the rwandese national movement for democracy and development, or mrndd and its forces had ended in a peace agreement, the arusha accord, in august of 1993. Led by president paul kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing ended the rwandan genocide in 1994. We did a qualitative content analysis of news reports disseminated by international media about events occurring in rwanda. The protocol of agreement between the government of the republic of rwanda and the rwandese patriotic front on the rule of law, signed at arusha on 18th september, 1992. Together with rwandan renegades, they forged a political liberation movement, the rwandan patriotic front rpf. There is a good deal of policy discussion, governed by institutional rules that are appropriate to the rwandan context and might usefully be emulated in some of the other ethnically divided societies of the region. Other articles where rwandan patriotic front is discussed.
Patriotic front rpf to liberate rwanda, the government launched yet another cycle of genocide. Ethnicity, violence, and the narrative of genocide. The rwandan patriotic front hrw report leave none to. The genocide ended in july 1994, when the rebel army of the rwandan patriotic front rpf overthrew the government of habyarimana, and forced the rwandan army, militias, and a large number of rwandan civilians across the border into zaire. Party builds a formidable business group the rpf is one of the best endowed political movements in the region, writes. Fe the existence and number of false documents in circulation that concern the. In august 2010 voters elected president paul kagame to a second sevenyear term with 93 percent of the vote. Between april and july 1994, as forces of the rwandan patriotic front swept through the country and put an end to a governmentled slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people, one of the challenges was to create a government presence and provide basic services in the wartorn country. The ruling rwandan patriotic front rpf leads a coalition that includes six smaller parties. Eventually, the rwandan patriotic front formed the rwandan patriotic army rpa, which, in a surprise move, invaded rwanda in october 1990. The largely tutsi rwandan patriotic front rpf, took power in 1994 and formed a government of national unity. Womens bodies as a battleground international alert. The rpf launched an invasion in the late 1980s aimed at overthrowing the hutu dictator, juvenal habyarimana. The rwandan patriotic front, which emerged in exile over the past thirty years and now dominates the government in kigali, faces a dilemma.
This page was last edited on 19 september 2019, at 16. Rwandan patriotic front crimes rwanda strongly opposed renewed calls for prosecution of members of the nowgoverning rwandan patriotic front rpf who committed crimes during the genocide. Rwandan patriotic front rpf, an opposition movement organised by tutsi exiles in uganda, launched a military offensive in rwanda and seized power in kigali in early july. From april to july 1994, between 500,000 and one million rwandan tutsi were systematically exterminated by militiamen under rwandan armed forces far in french control. The mission, which was not allowed to use military force to achieve its aims, was limited to investigating breaches in the ceasefire, helping humanitarian. In april 1994, the rwandan government, then dominated by hutu power extremists who feared sharing power with a rebel groupthe tutsidominated, ugandabased rwandan patriotic front rpforganized a genocide of the tutsi minority population and.
The rebellion further inflamed the countrys longstanding ethnic tensions, and hutu mobs, incited by local authorities, killed hundreds of tutsi civilians. Rwandan patriotic front political party, rwanda britannica. Tutsi responded by forming a political and military group, the rwandan patriotic front rpf. In rwanda, events of a prior decade are still fresh in the minds of many survivors and perpetrators. Although it was initially pushed back into uganda, the rpa continued to wage a lowintensity war at the rwandanugandan border until the two sides agreed to a ceasefire and began peace negotiations in july 1992. This many people were killed during the rwandan genocide. Rwandan patriotic front fpr, also known as rpf is an inactive group formed c. Rwanda 2014 human rights report executive summary rwanda is a constitutional republic dominated by a strong presidency. Stein and cuny 1994, the focus of this dissertation is the role of the rwandan government in formal repatriation programmes. Bilateral cooperation and local power dynamics 5 we argue that these impressions are misleading. Sociodemographic characteristics of interviewees 29 4.
Pdf the rwandan patriotic front rpf has developed an elaborate. The rwandan patriotic fronts bloody record and the. They were fighting with the government of rwanda, or the gor. The crimes of the rwandan patriotic front the following has been excerpted from judi revers compelling new book, with permission of the publisher, random house canada. Since the ruling rwandan patriotic front took power 23 years ago, rwandans have faced huge, and often deadly, obstacles to participating in public life and voicing criticism of government policy. Rwanda country reports on human rights practices 2005 released by the bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor march 8, 2006 rwanda is a constitutional republic dominated by a strong presidency. In 1990 the rpf launched attacks, exacerbating the civil unrest. All structured data from the file and property namespaces is available under the creative commons cc0 license. Exile, reform, and the rise of the rwandan patriotic front jstor. Front line rwanda disappearances, arrests, threats. The rpf mostly killed members of the hutu tribe, as the gor was mostly killing members.
1353 834 1347 605 1137 1288 12 969 1559 1004 1474 583 590 898 1487 288 999 361 411 1618 1383 157 49 1563 248 612 1097 85 98 373 243 333 1080 291 631 785 987 1441 778 279 711 119 489 530 82 1482 1461 466 1494 896