Land Scanfly, Dismmbufion and Conflict in Rwanda 55of the 1959 conflict. 1990 thus marked the beginning of a civil war that by
1992 had displaced one-tenth of the population and widely disrupted agri-
cultural activities.Is Even after the signing of the Arusha Peace Accords in
August 1993, hostilities continued. During this period, radical Hutu plotted
the genocide with the support of the government.
Tensions reached a climax on April 6, 1994, when the plane cartying
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart,
President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down, killing them both and matking
the beginning of the genocide. Fighting between the RPF and the Rwandan
defence forces (Forces Am6es Rwandaises or FAR) escalated and within a
period of 100 days an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu moderates were
killed by members of a radical Hutu militia group.I6 The RPF emerged sicto-
rious in July 1994 and leads the government in Rwanda to this day. However,
full peace and national reconciliation is still elusive. Persistent armed incur-
sions into Rwanda that are organised by members of FAR and the Hutu mili-
tia group responsible for the genocide (the Interahamwe, now operating
under its French acronym PALIR, or the Peuple en Ames Pour Liberer le
Rwanda) continue.
In the post-genocide period, the precarious refugee situation continues to
be a source of insecurity and instability to Rwanda. The government of the
neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where many ex-FAR
servicemen and Hutu militia sought refuge, has either been unwilling or
unable to disarm them. sometimes seeine them - as allies in a common strue- -
gle against Rwandese occupation.17 Rwanda justifies the presence of its occu-
pying forces in the DRC on the grounds of the continued presence of FAR and
PALIR cells inside the DRC. ~wanda feels that its nationk security is threat-
ened as long as the PALIR continues to operate from inside the DRC.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has stressed that Rwanda's DRC policy is to
contain PAWR military activities.Key Factors
Although the importance of ethnicity should not be overestimated, it is still
important to trace the use of ethnicity in conflict discourse. In Rwanda, his-
torical narratives of social injustice were employed by Hutu extremists prior
to the genocide in 1994 to justify their exclusive claim to power.
PrunierI8 analyses the role of colonialism in creating a cultural mythology
that informed the ideology and actions of Hutu and Tutsi, and the role of this
mythology in causing conflict. To Prunier, although conflict in Rwanda can be
viewed as a power struggle between Hutus and Tutsi dating to colonialism,
ethnicity is not necessarily the most important factor to understanding the
conflict. He cautions against dividing the Rwandan society into Hutu, Tutsi