Narrative
Refugee Movements, 1992-1997
Rwanda is a small East African country surrounded by mountains, lakes and evergreen landscape. In contrast, the breathtaking natural environment hides a bloody history. Due to violence among the warring Tutsi and Hutu ethnicities in the 1950s and 1960s, hundreds of thousands of people, primarily Tutsi, fled Rwanda and remained refugees for more than 30 years. Throughout the 1980s, Rwanda’s Hutu-led government refused to allow the exiled to return, resulting in an invasion of the country led by the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF).
In the 1990s, violence and unrest altered the lives of millions of people; and, over the course of only three months and nine days, hundreds of thousands were killed (BBC, 2019; The UN Refugee Agency).Those who were able fled Rwanda in the wake of the genocide of 1994. In search of protection, most refugees went to Tanzania, Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo – DRC), Burundi, and Uganda; but, some went farther – to Europe and the USA.
“...We got so used to running that when one wasn’t running, one didn’t feel right…. There were only dead people. The bodies fell down in the stream, and I used those bodies as a bridge to cross the water and join the other people in the evenings.”Manase Bimenyimana (as cited in Gourevitch, 1998, p. 31).
This tragedy, however, did not happen overnight…
1992 | Hate Speech and Propaganda
It has been two years since the Civil War began. Fabricated news about the Tutsis’ plan to massacre Hutus spreads throughout the country. Radio Rwanda’s broadcasts, Kangura newspaper publications, and numerous pamphlets continue to intensify the diffusion of rumours to exacerbate ethnic tensions between Tutsi and Hutu.
From March through August, this propaganda costs the lives of over 300 Tutsis in Bugesera, south of Kigali, Kibuye, and Gisenyi (Bugoni & Corvino, 2018; Gourevitch, 1998, p. 94). On November 22d Léon Mugesera, a prominent Hutu politician, delivers a speech at the Mouvement Républicain National pour la Démocratie et le Développement party meeting:
“Members of opposition parties...have no right to live among us...finance operations to eliminate these people…. Destroy them... No matter what you do, do not let them get away... Remember that the person whose life you save will certainly not save yours”(Gourevitch, 1998, pp. 96-97).
This message spreads hatred and likely incites the genocidal attacks against Tutsi and their supporters in the following two years (Fletcher, 2014).
1993 | Peace Agreement
From January to February, the government launches a self-defence program to train militia and furnish them with grenades, machetes, and knives (Minorities at Risk Project, 2014; Human Right Watch, n.d.):
“...it was well known that they were training to kill Tutsis; it was announced on the radio, it was in the newspapers, people spoke of it openly”(Gourevitch, 1998, p. 18).
On February 14, 600 Tutsi rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) cross the border of Rwanda from Uganda and drive back the government troops. The civilians flee south, increasing the total number of displaced individuals to 1 million (Minorities at Risk Project, 2014; Human Right Watch, n.d.).
On August 4th President Juvénal Habyarimana is forced to sign a UN-sponsored peace agreement with the Rwandan Patriotic Front to end a civil war. As a part of negotiations, the international community agrees to secure funds and assist Rwanda in the implementation of the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs upon the establishment of the transition government composed of representatives of all national political parties. However, due to lack of funding, political instability in the country, and tensions about demobilization, these programs have never been implemented (Willard, 2014). The failure of the Arusha Peace Accords drives the government, Tutsi, and Hutu even further apart.
1994 | 100 Days of Slaughter
The unresolved political tensions reach a boiling point on April 7th, after President Habyarimana’s death due to a plane shooting attributed to Tutsis. The next morning, the genocide begins, in which almost a million people are slaughtered (Wielenga, 2012).
“They began shooting at us, and we threw stones at them because we had nothing else, not even a machete. We were hungry, tired, we hadn’t water for more than a day... They killed the people at the chapel and the school and then the hospital... In the evening, around eight or nine o’clock, they began firing tear gas. People who were still alive cried. That way the attackers knew where people were, and they could kill them directly. The killers killed all day... At night they cut the Achilles tendons of survivors and went off to feast behind the church, roasting cattle looted from their victims in big fires, and drinking beer. ...Day after day, minute to minute, Tutsi by Tutsi: all across Rwanda,they worked like that.”(Gourevitch, 1998, p. 18-29)
The genocide provokes the most massive refugee movement ever known – over two million people leave Rwanda for neighboring countries: 1.2 million in Zaire, 580,000 in Tanzania, 270,000 in Burundi, and 10,000 in Uganda. (UNHCR, n.d). On April 29, in just twenty-four hours, an estimated 250,000 refugee cross the bridge at Rusumo Falls and enter Tanzania (Newbury, 2005).
In early July, as armed strife subsides and many Tutsis return to Rwanda. Approximately one million Rwandan Hutus flee to Zaire and 170,000 flee to Burundi, driven by fear of the rebels’ retribution (MMWR, 1996; United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 1997).
1995 | Repatriation
Refugee camps spring up in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Zaire. Camps quickly become another place of mass deaths of both Tutsi and Hutu from diseases, violence, and massacres (MMWR, 1996; UNHCR, n.d). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees enforces the repatriation program. In August, the Zairean government closes one camp and forcibly returns 15,000 refugees to Rwanda. Throughout the year, 700,000 Tutsi voluntary return back home to the land that the Hutu now control (United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 1997).
“We survivors find it very difficult to integrate into the present society... They have their own style from outside, and the don’t have much trust either...They said of us Tutsi who were here, ‘...If they killed everyone and you survived, maybe you collaborated.’ To a woman who was raped twenty times a day, day after day, and now has a baby from that, they would say this: For us, it was too hard at first, finding that everyone was dead, that we didn’t know anyone. It didn’t occur to us to grab better houses, and now it’s we who are taking care of most of the orphans...”(Gourevitch, 1998, p. 233).
Approximately 20% of the Hutu refugees also trickle back to Rwanda. By the end of the year, an estimated 1.5 million Rwandans, mostly Hutu, remain in Zaire, Tanzania, and Burundi and refuse to return (United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 1997).
1996 | The Journey Home
Slowly, living conditions in Rwanda begin to improve and local markets, schools, and hospitals open their doors. The Rwandan government regularly invites the refugees to return and establishes repatriation reception committees in each prefecture:
“I would particularly like to ask the refugees to return home, to tell them we await them, that they should stop living in misery in camps and humiliation of exile.”Pasteur Bizimungu, Rwandan President (United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 1997)
Even then, banditry, land disputes, and post-genocide revenge are still prevalent. 230 survivors of the 1994 genocide are killed, nearly 300 persons are killed by infiltrators, and about 340 people are murdered by RPF soldiers. An estimated 1.3 million Rwandan refugees repatriate throughout the year. At the end of the year, about 257,000 people remain displaced – an estimated 200,000 in Zaire, 50,000 in Tanzania, 5,000 in Uganda, and 2,000 in Burundi. (United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 1997).
1997 | From Hatred to Reconciliation
Another 200,000 Hutu refugees return to Rwanda (USCR, 2001). Tutsi and Hutu are forced to live together, share daily lives, and rebuild the country. Forgiveness becomes a secret weapon in reconciliation of genocide survivors with their perpetrators. Government initiatives encouraged both parties to work together on agricultural fields, build new houses, and actively participate in the genocide commemoration memorials (Ordonez & Dushimimana, 2019).
“When I left jail, it was hard for me to get out of the house. I hid every time someone came around. But my conscience told me to report myself to the authorities. It urged me to ask for forgiveness from those I wronged, especially survivors who did not know me. I approached them and asked for forgiveness. Some were hesitant. It was hard for me too. I don’t know how to say it.”Emmanuel Ndaysaba, Genocide Participant
“When he came in front of me, he knelt down. I saw he was sweating. He raised his hands. He rambled, with many unrelated words. Then he managed to tell me that he was asking me to forgive him because he was the one who cut me. I was speechless. It happened on Monday. It took me a whole week to think about it. I finally decided to forgive him from the bottom of my heart with no other influence.”Mucaro Alice Rinda, Genocide Survivor