Histoire du vicariat

V.3 Repatriation of all refugees
Rwandan refugees belong to two categories: the Tutsi who left the country in several successive waves since 1959 and the Hutu who left Rwanda since 1994. The right to return to their motherland is an inalienable right. Unfortunately, this right was denied to the first category, composed in the majority of the Tutsi, under the pretext that the Rwandan territory did not have enough space to accommodate them.
On the other hand, the refugees of the 2nd category, made up almost exclusively of the Hutu, were invited by the current Government to return to their motherland, whereas the Rwandese territory is always the same.
It should be well noted that it is this refusal against the Tutsi refugees to return to their country which was the cause of their forceful return under the banner of the RPF-Inkotanyi.
V.4 End of impunity and capital punishment
Impunity of all criminals against the Tutsi had become a current practice since the installation of Parmehutu-MRND regimes. During that time, this impunity was even sometimes rewarded. Since the installation of the 3^rd Republic, impunity was banished forever. This is how after the immense tragedy of the 1994-genocide, the Government created a Special Court (Gacaca) so as to punish those who had killed more than one million of their fellow-citizens. In addition to their repressive function, Gacaca Courts had another goal: to reconcile Rwandans, victims and culprits. It is in this context of reconciliation that even capital punishment was outlawed.
V.5 End of discrimination against women
Discrimination against women is not a problem that is specific to Rwanda only. It is universal in space and time. This injustice had been practiced in all countries and all religions. If we mention this question here, it is because the current Rwandan Government, resulting from FPR-Inkotanyi political movement, adopted a revolutionary policy in reaction to this discrimination against women. Indeed, Rwanda is nowadays the first and single country in the world to give to women more than 50% political rights and responsibilities in governance. This innovation comes, inter alia, from the experience of the 1994-genocide. This experience, which is the supreme degree of injustice with regard to humans, made Rwandans understand that any injustice had to be fought against, whatever it is and until its last entrenchments. Accordingly, all injustice against women could not escape the Rwandan dispenser of justice.

V.6 Decentralization

Compared to all the preceding Governments and even compared to neighboring countries, the Government of the 3^rd Republic devolved powers of the country up to lower levels of the state pyramid. These levels of administration are as follows: 4 Provinces (Intara), 30 Districts (Uturere), 1.545 Sectors (Imirenge), 8.987 Cells (Utugali) and 5.700 Villages (Imidugudu). The Capital, Kigali, constitutes a special Province on its own. All these levels of power are taken as small governments which are self-managed.

At the highest level, there is the central Government, made up of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. This way, with widespread modern means of communication throughout the country, the Rwandan citizen is fully responsible for the governance of the country as well as the beneficiary of the assets of the nation. Sharing rights and duties on a purely equal basis, Rwandans live today in a society which banished, in principle, any form of discrimination. Injustice, inevitable in human societies, is fought with greatest energy by the office of the Ombudsman (Umuvunyi). In the recent past, the Government seems to have chosen 3 pillars to support its action: a strong power, a solid economy and national unity.
A strong power means that, just like in a football match, the referee must have enough force to make players comply with rules of the game. A strong power does not mean necessarily dictatorship but the power to contain disorders and social deviations. A solid economy in the country, as in a family, allows the citizens to have enough bread. Otherwise, the bread eaters would conflict among themselves accusing each other of being gluttons. After many years of disunity among Rwandans, national unity could only be the pivot of our democracy. The freedom of citizens, no matter how commendable it is, cannot consist in saying, writing and doing anything one wishes. Looking together in the same direction, building together a prosperous nation, avoiding everything that can make us go back to the genocidal pangs, remains for a long time a categorical imperative.

Chap. VI: RESTORATION OF NATIONAL UNITY

This heading supposes that the current state of Rwanda is not what it has always been. We have just seen certain events which broke the normal course of its history. There was initially the racial ideology resulting from the theory of the famous English explorer, John Hanning Speke. There was then the colonial policy of “divide and rule” which created opposition between the Hutu and the Tutsi. There was finally the racist policy of the first two Republics. This policy, unfortunately, led to the 1994-genocide which flaunted common decency in international law. It is this set of events, very much haunting, which occasioned the break of our national unity. It is this unity which is necessary to restore so as to ensure the survival of the nation. This restoration requires time, enough means and a considerable effort on the part of Rwandans themselves and even of the international community. Let us try to see how we can outline the stages of this roadmap. 1° To revisit the history of pre-colonial Rwanda, 2° To evaluate the ideology of Parmehutu-MRND, 3° To rule out foreign manipulations exerted on our country, 4° To appreciate efforts of the current national redress.

VI.1 To revisit the pre-colonial Rwandan history
The sources of Rwanda’s history, before its colonization by the West, are known from recent publications of which the main ones are the following:

1° the first source includes historiographic poems which were the object of various collections of which the principal ones were collected by Alexis Kagame, totaling 176 poems. Unfortunately, this researcher died in 1981 without being able to publish the entire collection.

Fortunately, Bernardin Muzungu completed this work by publishing an edited text of this collection of Kagame and by adding to it 14 other poems from his own collection. After publishing this research in 9 publications of his Review Cahiers Lumière et Société (N^os 24, 26-32, 39), he put the whole of this collection, totaling 190 poems, on Internet on the following website: http://www.domminicains.ca /Nyirarumaga/. Whoever is unaware of or neglects this source, the most complete and most authoritative source of our oral history, that person is condemned to have skimpy or distorted knowledge of pre-colonial Rwanda. 2° the second source, depending on the first, is in various writings of Alexis Kagame of which the most important is entitled Inganji Karinga, in 2 volumes. This work was translated in two books entitled: Un abrégé de l’ethno-histoire du Rwanda (Butare, 1972) and Un abrégé de l’histoire du Rwanda (Butare, 1975). After reading the works of his elder, Bernardin Muzungu published another book which summarizes those publications of Kagame and brings in some corrections, today deemed essential. That last writing is published under the title Histoire du Rwanda pré-colonial (L’ Harmatan, 2003).
These works which reflect our oral traditions were contradicted by other publications emanating from European writers of the colonial period. It is these last writers who imposed “their history of Rwanda” during the colonial period and during the reign of the first two Republics. We have already mentioned these writers under the title of “Disciples of Speke”. Unfortunately, until now, it is this history, “made in Europe”, which is still believed in. It is in the name of this history that the disintegration of the Rwandan people occurred.

Today, to revisit the history of Rwanda means: to consider this history of Rwanda written by our colonizers, as a bad dream to be forgotten. Our current work consists in trying to connect the pre-colonial Rwandan history to that of today that the country has been writing since the 1994-genocide.

VI.2 To evaluate the ideology of Parmehutu-MRND
In our recent history in general, the saddest event was the birth and the program of Parmehutu political Party of Gregoire Kayibanda and its continuation through MRND of Juvénal Habyarimana and his godfathers. The founders of these political parties were, however, former students of seminaries of Kabgayi and Nyakibanda. In these Catholic schools, the student learns logical analysis of writings and philosophy, which is the art to think critically, including Christian morals practiced within the Catholic Church. It is these politicians who propagated Hutu racism among Rwandans. It should be well noted here that among these politicians, many did not have the quality of this militancy. Indeed, some had Tutsi wives. Others were not even of Rwandan origin. As regards marriages between the Hutu and the Tutsi, Kayibanda himself had a Tutsi wife. The Prime Minister Anastase Makuza had, also, a Tutsi woman. As for Minister Jean-Baptiste Rwasibo, the one who set fire to the Province of Bufundu at the beginning of Parmehutu waves of violence, was himself a Tutsi. He ended up being thrown out of this group and obliged to pay a heavy fine for this cheating. Another anomaly in this pro-Hutu militancy is that some people who took the Tutsi to be foreigners from Ethiopia, were only recent immigrants. Kayibanda himself was, indeed, of foreign origin. He was the son of Rwamanywa, son of Rwabanyiga, an immigrant from Bushi in the present Democratic Republic of Congo. It is this foreigner who came to be established in Rwanda and became the servant of Chief Kanyemera who took charge of him and his family. It was under the reign of king Musinga during the colonial period.
How about President Habyarimana? Juvénal Habyarimana was the son of an immigrant named Jean-Baptiste Ntibazirikana. This one, after having left the North of Kivu, came to look for a job in the Mission of the White Fathers in Bufumbira, in Uganda. It is from there that he came as a cook of Fathers who came to found the Mission of Rwaza. Thereafter, he accompanied them in the newly founded parish of Rambura.

At the time of Rwanda’s independence, Hutu leaders missed the good opportunity. Instead of removing all colonial injustices, they worsened them. As we have seen, these injustices can be categorized in two fields: the social field and the anthropological field. From the social point of view, first of all, it is necessary to remember the two famous reforms: that of Resident George Mortehann and that of the Special Resident Guy Logiest. The first gave the monopoly of administrative power to members of the royal family. The book by Father Leon Delmas indeed showed that, in 1948, chiefs and sub-chiefs of this time belonged to members of the two dynastic clans, Abanyiginya and Abega, in the order of 53% in the whole of the country. This injustice, made by the colonialists, was wrongly attributed to all the Tutsi. In the same way, the reform of Logiest did nothing but reverse this same injustice. In the Provisional Government, everyone remembers, Ministries were equally distributed between the Hutu and Belgians. Only one Ministry was granted to a Tutsi: the Ministry of Refugees.

In this way, the two injustices of social nature had the same author: the colonizer. The scapegoat was also the Tutsi. After independence, instead of correcting this injustice, the first two Republics ratified and even worsened it. Anthropologically speaking, things were not better. In his policy of indirect rule, the colonizer compared the Hutu to all the Negroes. He qualified them, as specified by the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in his book Practical Anthropology (1929) “as people who occupy the lowest level of humanity below which one cannot go down without falling in animality”. He said elsewhere, in this same book: “Blacks are hardly polished monkeys”.
This vocabulary, is noted in the quotations of authors of the colonial time. Here is another one, for example: Matthieu, P., 1930: The Hutu is of “very primitive race, without culture, his intellect is still in sleep”. The Resident of Rwanda, George Sandrart, in his book Essai d’histoire du Haut-Plateau interlacustre de l’Afrique orientale, (Astrida, 1942, p. 110) said: “The Hutu has a narrow spirit, closed to all innovations, ripe for enslavement, born to be dominated, naive, peasant”.
The Tutsi was regarded as a race of cousins of the White, quite superior to Negroes. For example: Maes, J., in Ruanda, Umschau, 1942, p. 419-421: “The Tutsi are not Bantus. They undoubtedly still speak in private their source language”. Alexandre Arnoux, Les Pères Blancs aux sources du Nil, Paris, 1950, p. 18: “Akin, without any doubt, to Abyssinians, the Batutsi came to Rwanda a very long time after the other races. Those of them who descend from non-mixed bred are recognized through their Semitic visage, their fine features, regular, their bronzed rather than black skin, their slenderness but especially through their tall size: 1m 80 on average”. It is this ratio of inequality between the Hutu and the Tutsi which created the complex of inferiority and superiority between the two groups of Rwandans. The person in charge of this state of affairs is always the same colonizer. Victims are, finally the two groups trained to be enemies. The bitterest consequence, we saw it, was the 1994-genocide.
VI. 3 To be aware of foreign manipulations exerted on our country
Being aware of manipulations that Western powers exerted on Africa in general and on Rwanda, in particular, provokes an extremely painful feeling. In this regard, I think of the slave trade of the Black, the colonization of Africa, the plunder of natural resources of our continent, unfair systems of commercial exchange whose result is progressive impoverishment of the Third World, international organizations, such as the UN through which Super Powers impose their dictates on other nations.
With regard to our country, specifically, such foreign manipulations were many and varied. We have already mentioned some of them. Suffice it to point out the following: Let us recall the ideology of inequality of races applied to our two social groups: the Tutsi and the Hutu. We also think of foreign armed forces who were present in our country during the genocide, but who preferred to leave the country while the genocidaires were busy with their dirty job, as General Romeo Dallaire always testifies. To cut it short, let us recall 4 persons whose action was decisive for the Rwandan evil: the Hutu-tutsi problem. François Mitterrand, the former French President, is the person who often comes in mind in this regard. His friendship with President Juvénal Habyarimana placed him at the first rank of actors in our misfortunes. Let us recall that he once said, referring to the genocide in Rwanda: “Genocide, in these countries, is not a big deal!” Boutros-Boutros Ghali, the former UN Secretary General, of Egyptian nationality, was the chief of U.N. troops deployed in Rwanda during the genocide. It is him who gave orders to his troops to leave Rwanda at the time when the victims needed them most. Guy Logiest, the Special Resident, sent to Rwanda to put the country in the hands of Parmehutu, was the principal cause of atrocities committed in Rwanda. Monsignor André Perraudin, former bishop of Kabgayi, was the man who accredited the idea that all misfortunes of the Hutu come from the Tutsi. After learning by heart this ideology, the genocidaires were able to kill, convinced that the only fact of being a Tutsi constitutes a crime which deserves death penalty.
VI.4 To appreciate the current efforts of national reconstruction.

The capture of Kigali by RPF-Inkotanyi took place on July 4, 1994. Since this date, a Government of national Unity was set up. We are today in 2011. This Government has thus worked for 16 years. An assessment of these few years gives a small idea of the expected final result. All the deployed efforts have not yet shown their results. What we can do now, is rather to estimate the main trends. Let us mention those which seem to us the most important.

No need to repeat the 6 elements of the above mentioned RPF response. They should however be retained as tangible results so far achieved. The Government projected its action on a 20-year period, called Vision 20-20. After this period, one will be able to have a more or less founded appreciation. Here is an assessment of the already achieved results.
1° Security: Peace and security on our national territory is an established fact. Roadblocks which strewed all our roads, a few years ago, became a bad dream. The national Police ensures the security of people and their property. Inevitable infractions existing in all countries of the world are quickly identified and vigorously repressed. Our national army, after stopping the genocide, eliminating incursions of Rwandan rebels exiled in Congo, after installing military deployments throughout the country to ensure the quietude and cooperation of the population, started to export peace in other countries in conflict like Sudan, Haiti and elsewhere.
2° The fight against divisionism and the genocide ideology: This effort produces some progress. In a recent survey, it was revealed that 60% inhabitants of this country recognize themselves as Rwandans more than them feel as Hutus and Tutsis. This proportion goes increasing especially among the youth at school. It’s not the same for the youths’ elders who were involved in lawlessness and genocide. They will probably keep their ideas until their death. But the country will continue its course of history.
Among the efforts made by the current Government, let us mention the following: the most significant as we have earlier mentioned, is the establishment of people’s tribunals known as Gacaca. Among the objectives of these courts, there is reconciliation between the victims and their torturers. This effort has already produced beneficial fruits. Some culprits have recognized their misdeeds.

We have many examples of them. Let us start with TIG participants, these prisoners who accept to do works of public interest: including, for instance, the construction of houses for the genocide survivors, the construction of schools, hospitals, roads and other works of public interest. It should be also said that the only fact of carrying in public the uniform of prisoners and acknowledging their faults in public meetings facilitates national reconciliation. These consents make the deniers of the genocide shut up. Let us also talk about the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission of which the goal is to put Rwandans of all categories in common activities to make them acquire the practice of working together without embarrassment or suspicion. For example, there are Unity Clubs in schools, Solidarity Camps (Ingando) in holidays at the end of each year for the students who finish the secondary school. There is finally the organization of socialization centers called Amatorero to revive the social cohesion of Rwanda before colonialism. Let us finish this short list of Government efforts aimed at national redress by mentioning the law enacted to repress the propagators of the genocide ideology and divisionism.

3° Regional integration: Rwanda has just joined a regional collaboration of 5 countries of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. This integration practically regards all the walks of life: political, economic, social, military and legal. Only the nationality of each country seems to escape this fusion. In this global context, Rwanda will be able to transcend its internal divisions and its land-locked economic situation.
4° Opening up to the world: Despite the small size of its territory, Rwanda maintains good relations with every country. It is true, its genocide conferred to her a global character. But the fact that this small country could rebuild itself and move out of the genocide quagmire alone and transcend its immediate consequences attracted for her international admiration. Today, Rwanda opens its doors to exchanges from all over the world, without any privilege and discrimination.

Whoever knew Rwanda 10 years ago, today he/she can be amazed. Kigali, its capital, presents itself more and more as one of the capitals of developed countries. Work becomes more and more the weapon of progress. In all corners of the country, the slogan is the same: getting one’s hands out of the pockets, and beginning to work very early in the morning, working together if possible, to learn new methods of production and profitability. In the countryside, everything is changing, everything improves, everyone sings progress.

5° All Rwandans are equal before the law: All Rwandan regimes put this dogma in their fundamental laws. But, the fact of writing it did not prevent them from violating it. For example, here is how the Constitution of the racist Parmehutu regime stipulated: “The Rwandan Republic ensures equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, origin, sex or religion” (Art. 3). It is on this point that the 3^rd Republic differs basically from all its predecessors. It was not enough for him to say it as all the others, but it puts it into practice in all sectors of social life. Applications of this dogma, as we have already indicated them, are: women, education, refugees, identity card, access to political power, employment, etc.


VII. ANSWER TO THE INITIAL QUESTION:

WHO STILL BENEFITS FROM THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RWANDANS?

This question comprises 4 aspects: 1° definition of the conflict between Rwandans. 2° Its origin. 3° Its present state. 4° Who still profits from this conflict.

VII.1 Definition of the conflict between Rwandans

What conflict and which categories of Rwandan are involved? These two questions apparently simple deserve some clarification. Regarding the conflict first of all, since 1959 up to 1994, there were in Rwanda unhappy events which attest to this conflict. As regards the parties to this conflict, everyone knows, they are the two main social groups of Rwandans: the Hutu and the Tutsi. It is first of all the colonial authorities who applied the principle of “divide and rule” that is to say, the strategy which wanted to divide Rwandans in order to better manipulate them. It is, thereafter, the authorities of the first two Republics who benefited from this manipulation of the colonists to serve their egoistic interests. The nature of this conflict is in two respects, as we have already said: economic and social as well as anthropological respects. In other words, it consists of the fight to acquire the power and the richness but also to have the respect of human dignity which excludes any inequality between the Hutu and the Tutsi.

It is useful to specify what we understand by these two terms. We have already mentioned the theory of Speke, applied to these two groups and accepted by almost everyone. For a certain time we are rejecting this unanimity. To cut it short, which criteria will we use to know that such individual belongs to such group? We first of all look at the somatic traits. We must also know the group to which belongs his/her father. These are the two elements which constitute the identity classification of an individual.
Having said that, all Rwandans belong to only one race to which belong 3 social groups: the Twa, the Tutsi, and the Hutu. The debate on this question of races and ethnic groups in Rwanda is already known and we shall not add anything else. Suffice it only to point out a useful reference. Marcel d’HERTEFELT wrote a book entitled Les clans du Rwanda ancien (Butare, 1971). This book shows that the Hutu and the Tutsi belong to the same clans, i.e. descend from the same patrilineal ancestors. The same book indicates 18 clans in Rwanda each one containing the Twa, the Hutu and the Tutsi. For example, it finds in the Abega clan the following distribution: 11% Twa, 10% Tutsi, 7% Hutu
In other words, the terms Hutu, Tutsi, Twa indicate social categories of the same people. The problem that exists between the Hutu and the Tutsi is thus properly of political nature. They were told that they are not of the same race, that the hutu belong to an inferior race than that of the Tutsi. And that he Hutu are made to be ruled by the Tutsi. That is the true nature of the conflict, created by foreigners out of nothing. Indeed, as we have just seen, the Rwandan term ubwoko designates in the Rwandan culture the various clans that we have mentioned; for example: Abega, Abasinga, etc… As for the general meaning, Ubwoko means race, such as the Chineses and the Belgians. While the difference between the three Rwandan groups rests on their respective professions: the Tutsi were cattle herders, the Hutu were farmers and the Twa potters who manufactured household utensils.

Considering the respective importance of these three trades, these three social categories of the same race occupied three hierarchical social statuses: at the first rank, the Tutsi cattle breeders, at the second rank, the Hutu farmers and at the last row, the Twa potters.