Research Paper

Intra-state Conflicts:

The Rwandan Genocide and Civil War

Yasmina Bakkar

March 18, 2020

PSPA232 - Prof. Dima Smaira

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I. Introduction

The intra-state conflict of Rwanda can be labelled many things; from civil war to genocide, the
clash between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes was cause to the loss of life of more than 800,00 civilian in
a period of three months. While the international community continuously supported the stance that
what was happening was merely violence caused by the long lasting Rwandan Civil war and on-
going conflict between tribes, it was difficult to account the death of 800,000 civilians as collateral
damage. The massacre that occurred in Rwanda between April and June of 1994 was premeditated
genocide and was said to be “The fastest, most efficient killing spree of the 20th century”
(Samantha Power ,Genocide). While the world neglected the gravity of the situation in Rwanda and
failed to intervene and potentially halt the killings, one question prevailed: What was the cause of
this conflict that was so extreme it motivated such mass killings? Various scholars argue that the
never ending ethnic conflict between the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s is the root cause of this internal
conflict. In this paper I will be examining the conditions and circumstances under which the
Rwandan state operated pre and post conflict, in order to reach an answer to the question of what is
the primary reason that this genocide sparked. This includes looking past the social and ethnic
divide between the opposing tribes, and into the various horizontal inequalities, underlying and
proximate causes. These causes include injustices in various areas of life and the state such as the
structural, political, economic, social, and cultural imbalances that Rwanda faced prior to the
conflict which gave the Northern Hutu an elite status and power to manipulate the masses and
further reinforce ethnic division in order to maintain political power.

II. History and Context

By the end of the 1800’s, roughly 10% of Africa had been colonized and after the first World War,
this figure rose up to 90%. There was an imperialist conquest and partition in Africa in which by the
end of the 19th century, most of it was taken over and ‘carved up’ by European powers. During the
time, Liberals argued that this quest was about bringing Africa into ‘the light of civilization’.
Rwanda is a small landlocked state in the continent of Africa. After the first World War, it came
under the colonial power of Belgium due to the League of Nations (LON) mandate and the Paris
Peace Conference of 1919 which established the Belgium have the bulk of the the North-Western
territory. Belgium remained a major force in the state up until it gained independence in 1962.
During its reign in Rwanda, Belgian authorities took various measures which transformed the
country and created a base for the conflict to stem from. The LON established a the Mandate system
in which Mandate powers (Allied powers) were responsible for the administration and protection of
native people’s rights. The Belgians continued to support the pre-colonial kingdoms in which the

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Tutsi elite ruled over the Hutu majority, due to the Belgian belief in the superiority of the Tutsi’s.
Belgian authorities further reinforced this superiority by creating social serration between the two
tribes. Tutsi’s were taught French and Mathematics and were seen as intelligent and refined,
whereas the Hutu;s were taught the local language, singing, and natural sciences and were not
allowed to marry into the Tutsi tribe. This began to create the ethnic division and long term
resentment. In 1959, the Tutsi tribe were gathering pace in the independence movement, to which
the Belgian authorities quickly began to encourage the Hutu majority to also seek political power,
and a rival political party (Paramehutu) was established. It was during this time that the Rwandan
Revolution took place in which the Paramehutu initiated an uprising which resulted in the death of
many Tutsi’s and forced the minority along with their King to flee into exile in Uganda and
Burundi.
The post colonial Rwanda saw the First Republic between 1963-73 with Parmehutu leader
Grégoire Kayibanda as President; the remaining Tutsis faced continuing state-sponsored violence
and institutionalised discrimination. They functioned under a ‘representative democracy’ with a
Hutu majority rule. During this time, UN presence such as peace keepers and dipole mates
maintained economic stability, but not much support bin anything else. In 1973, the president was
overthrown by a coup led by by army chief of staff Juvénal Habyarimana. He then ensued a period
of military rule, until 1978, when a new constitution was promulgated and Habyarimana became
President. The Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (RANU) was formed in 1979 by Rwandan
refugees in exile became the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1987. In April 1994, the plane
carrying Habyarimana and the Burundian President was shot down on its return from Arusha to
Kigali, killing all the passengers. Consequently, this triggered the violent and mass genocide of
Tutsis by Hutu militia forces. The RPF retaliated by conduction a major offense movement from the
north. In a report conducted by Rwandan government and genocide survivor organizations, it was
established that 1,074,017 people were killed. It was said that the rapidity of killing was supposedly
five times the rate of extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust. people were killed. 93.6% of
the victims were murdered due to their Tutsi ethnicity; the remainder because they were Hutus
married to Tutsis, resembled Tutsi, had hidden Tutsi neighbours or were Hutus who opposed the
killings. In July 1994 the RPF took control of Kigali and formed an administration based on the
principles of power-sharing and national reconciliation which were the basis of the 1993 Arusha
Accords.

III. Social and Cultural Causes

Social underlying causes consist of social changes due to modernization (amongst many other
social changes), and migration, which challenge and undermine traditional institutions and creates

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difficulty in accommodating and evolving the existing system. Cultural causes are described as
discrimination against minorities. Interestingly, in the case of Rwanda, it was the constraints and
inequalities that the majority population faced which were further reinforced by the incoming
European colonizers, which sparked the conflict. The colonization of Rwanda by Belgian
authorities had a significant impact on the Rwandan society; and consequences which lasted long
after its independence. While Belgian colonizers maintained the existing political system at the
time, one which native monarchs to rule over the local population, they also adopted a sternly direct
control. This policy allowed the ethnic division to intensify and kept the fuel of conflict burning
until the events of the 1990’s. Before the colonization, the Hutu tribe were farmers and Tutsis were
cattle herders. There was a system of Ubahake, under which the Hutus serviced the Tutsis in
exchange for goods such as cattle; this also established the relation between the two tribes.
However, unlike Feudalism in Europe, Ubahake consequently caused a class-dominated system in
which the Tutsi tribe prevailed as a privileged elite and the Hutu majority as the working class.
Prior to Belgian colonization, German colonizer who had been in Rwanda further oppressed the
Hutu majority; wrongly assuming that the Tutsi minority were more fit to rule due to seemingly
being ‘more Caucasian’. The Belgians used the prevailing Tutsi monarchs as a means to colonize
and seize control over the Hutu population without having to mobilize a big amount of European
troops. The social division was further exploited by the Belgians by giving leaders military and
political support in exchange for maintaining their colonial policies.

In 1959, the Tutsi elite began gaining momentum in their strive for independence. The
Belgians took note of this, and in turn became more sympathetic towards the Hutus and encouraged
them to rebel against the old class system and fighting favor of democracy. Violent clashes between
the two tribes began, which led to the overthrowing of the Tutsi government by the Belgian-
supported Hutus. The violence led to the death of thousands of Tutsis, and the remaining ones to be
forced out and into Uganda and Burundi. Rwanda finally gained independence in 1962, however the
ethnic tensions further worsened between the displaced Tutsis and the newly empowered Hutus.
The displacement of the Tutsis ultimately resulted in the first civil war, after the Rwandan Patriotic
Front (RPF) which was located in Uganda invaded Rwanda. The war ended when the Hutus and
Tutsis decided on a joint government led by Hutu president Habyarimana. The genocide finally
sparked when Habiyarimans plane was shot down, killing everyone on board, in which Hutus
blamed the Tutsis for what had happened.

Although the vicious genocide occurred decades after the colonization of Rwanda by
European forces, it is evident and clear that the social and cultural triggers which set off the

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genocide was consolidated by the involvement of the Europeans. Their active manipulation of
society in order to emphasize the hierarchy between the two tribes was done through various means.
Through education, they were able to educate and refine the Tutsi elite, and discriminate against the
‘less caucasian’ Hutus by educating them only on agriculture, native language, and entertainment.
Additionally, they inequality was greatly reinforced by providing Tutsis with military and political
support in exchange for conformity, which suppressed the defenseless Hutu majority.

IV. Economic and Political Causes

Politics in Rwanda prior to the genocide was an extremely important and influencing factor in the
rise of tensions. Prior to the colonization of Rwanda, the state was a complex and culturally rich
area. It operated under a monarchy rule in which the Tutsi minority held a more prestigious status
and lifestyle because of their roles as cattle herders which deemed them valuable to Rwandan
society. A member of the Hutu tribe could become a Tutsi by marrying in, and while the monarchs
were neither Tutsi or Hutu, Tutsis were closest to an ‘aristocracy’ whereas Hutu the peasant class.
The two groups shared language and culture until the colonialists intervened and created a myth that
placed the Royal Family and the Tutsi as invaders from the north of a different race and tribe to the
Hutu. The German invasion of Rwanda saw that the Tutsi were given basic ruling position due to
being favorited by the germans, as well as their willingness to convert to Roman Catholicism. The
ruling elite and monarchy became almost fully Tutsi, and with German aid, the ‘Mwami’ (king) was
given more control over Rwandan affairs.
However, after the integration of foreign markets and economies, Tutsi power weakened as
Hutus began to value cattle less and money more. Tutsi power was further weakened after the
introduction of a ‘head tax’ which further distanced the bond between Hutus and their Tutsi leaders.
After the Belgians took control, they gave back political power to the Tutsis due to their belief that
Tutsis held Caucasian ancestry; a myth that Tutsis began to believe over time and caused the
exploitation of their power over the Hutus. The Belgians, in accordance with the Tutsi political
figures, issued identification cards which identified each persons tribal affiliation. The growing
partition between Tutsis and Hutus due to the political power that the Tutsis possessed, as well as
the colonialist policies they enabled in exchange, led to growing resentment from the Hutus which
ultimately resulted in violent clashes between the tribes. This caused Tutsis to flee to neighboring
countries, and when elections were held later on, the Hutu majority elected its representatives,
ending the Tutsi monarchy. Efforts to create a power sharing government failed due to the on going
clashes of violence, which - like a cycle- created more resentment and a rise in tension. Following

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the independence of Rwanda, the Parmehutu led government gained total control of national
politics. They called for the dissolvent and abolishment of the economic union of Rwanda and
Burundi as they were harboring Tutsis, which also increased tensions.

Under the new president Kayibanda, the Hutu population was favored in schools and employment,
which ultimately penalized the Tutsis and increased ethnic tensions. The final straw in the economic
and political injustices was the military regime that was established under new president
Habyarimana. After dissolving the National Assembly and abolishing the constitution, he gradually
imposed policies which favored Hutu over Tutsi and turned the country into a one-party state.
Tutsis greatly lacked political representation in this government, forcing them to flee the country in
growing resentment against the Hutus. On April 6, 1994, the aircraft carrying President
Habyarimana was shot down, and he died. This was the trigger point of the Rwandan genocide.

V. Analysis

Although the international community was quick to blame the genocide on the resentment that the
two ethnic groups had for each other, it is crucial to take into consideration the various factors that
were discussed which sparked this long lasting intrastate conflict. The ethnic divide which was
enhanced due to colonial rule stemmed from the horizontal inequalities faced by both tribes over a
long period of time. The inability for the Rwandan state to adopt an equally representative power
sharing government caused a creation of social status in society which pitted tribes against each
other, favoritism in the workforce which meant high unemployment and low standard of living for a
certain tripe, and finally, a breach in the social contract between the state and the people, in which
they faced injustice until the point that they were met with mass atrocities.

References:

Newbury, Catharine. “Ethnicity and the Politics of History in Rwanda.” Africa Today, vol. 45, no.
1, 1998, pp. 7–24. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4187200. Accessed 19 Mar. 2020.

Uvin, Peter. “Reading the Rwandan Genocide.” International Studies Review, vol. 3, no. 3, 2001,
pp. 75–99. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3186243. Accessed 19 Mar. 2020.

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David. “Ecology and the Politics of Genocide: Rwanda 1994.” Cultural Survival, 1 Dec. 1998,
www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/ecology-and-politics-genocide-rwanda-
1994.

Skok, Stephen. “What Impact Did the Belgian Presence in Rwanda Have to Spark Further
Conflict?” Education, 21 Nov. 2017, education.seattlepi.com/impact-did-belgian-presence-rwanda-spark-
further-conflict-5558.html.

Hydrant (www.hydrant.co.uk). “Rwanda : History.” Rwanda : History | The Commonwealth,

thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries/rwanda/history .

Jean, Moise. “The Rwandan Genocide: The True Motivations for Mass Killings”,
http://history.emory.edu/home/documents/endeavors/volume1/Moises.pdf

Keefe, Thomas E, “The Rwandan Civil War and Genocide”, Norwich University, October 1. 2006,
https://www.academia.edu/35338254/Intrastate_Conflict_The_Rwandan_Civil_War_and_Genocide