Rwanda. (Areas of Conflict).

Two groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi, are divided more along social lines than tribal ones. The Belgian colonial masters of Rwanda had favoured the Tutsi minority, but a Hutu rebellion in 1959 forced them out of power. Hundreds of thousands of Tutsi were killed or fled the country in recurring violence during the next few decades.

In October 1990, the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded from Uganda, demanding democracy and the right for refugees from earlier violence to return to Rwanda.

A peace accord was signed in Arusha, Kenya in 1993. It provided for the creation of a transitional government composed of President Juvenal Habyarimana's National Revolutionary Movement for Democracy and Development (MNRD), the RPF, and Rwandan opposition parties. The Arusha Accord collapsed in April 1994 when a plane carrying Habyarimana (and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira) was shot down.

A horrible orgy of killings followed, attributed mainly to Hutu attacks on Tutsi civilians. An estimated half million Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, were massacred. The RPF mobilized an army of its own, and a civil war ensued.

After capturing the capital of Kigali, RPF troops began to drive the Rwandan Army and Hutu civilians northwest. By year's end, two million Rwandans had fled into neighbouring countries. An RPF-backed government was established in Rwanda, and Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, was named president.

After Zairean rebels (with support from the RPF) overran Rwandese refugee camps in eastern Zaire (now DRC Congo) in late 1996, more than one million Zaire-based and Tanzania-based refugees returned to Rwanda. As many as 200,000 remained missing, with some assumed to be dead from hunger, disease, or military attacks.

In neighbouring Tanzania, a war crimes tribunal is judging people at the top of the command chain. A former prime minister has faced his accusers. Thirty-five other senior officials are awaiting trial. This is unusual; normally, it's just the foot soldiers who get caught and are tried for war crimes. In Tanzania, the UN is going after the people who planned and supervised the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people.

Back in Rwanda, 120,000 people are held in jails which the Red Cross describes as among the worst in the world. These are the people who are alleged to have done the actual killing. By early 2000, only 1,500 had had their trials, with the death sentence handed out to 100 or so. Of the rest, many will probably die in jail long before they get their day in court.

Rwanda and Uganda (which had both backed the Congolese rebels aiming to overthrow President Laurent Kabila,) turned against each other in 2000. They engaged in heavy fighting in the city of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, by mid-June, Rwanda announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Kisangani in order to allow for UN observers to move in.

Meanwhile, new clashes between government forces and Hutu extremists continued. Specific casualty figures were unavailable; however, it is likely that hundreds of people (mostly civilians) were killed in 2000.

In 2001, a major offensive by Rwandan rebels based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was defeated by the Rwandan military in May and June. More than 1,000 rebels were reported killed.

Fighting between Uganda and Rwanda in the DRC ended with an agreement to conduct joint military operations along their common borders.

Website

Journal of Humanitarian Assistance - http:// wuaw.jha.ac/glbook.htm

Ethnicity in Rwanda - http://www.africana.com/ Articles/tt_906.htm