The genocide was followed by an exodus of millions of Hutus. They were fleeing Tutsi rebels belonging to the Rwandan Patriotic Forces who had invaded the country from Uganda in 1992. The RPF advanced quickly after the start of the genocide, capturing the capital Kigali, within weeks.
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The interahamwe and what remained of the former Rwandan army (FAR) headed south-west, followed by nearly two million Hutu civilians. They eventually wound up in neighbouring Zaire, known today as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Others took refuge in Tanzania and Burundi. The 40,000 FAR soldiers and 100,000 interahamwe militiamen effectively controlled the camps in Congo. They used the refugees as a human shield preventing them from returning home. At least 50,000 people are believed to have died of disease in the refugee camps.
The Tanzanian government forced the over half a million refugees on its territory to go back to Rwanda in late 1996. In eastern Zaire, the remaining refugees fled the camps in late 1996 when fighting broke out there between the Zairean army and rebels of Laurent Kabila, the current president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another exodus began, with most of the refugees returning to Rwanda. The interahamwe headed in the opposite direction, into the rain forests of eastern Zaire, taking 150,000 refugees along with them. Many of them died of disease and exhaustion.
By 1997, Hutu extremists were launching almost daily attacks across the border from the DRC. As part of its efforts to suppress the insurgency, the Rwandan government moved hundreds of thousands of people in northwestern Rwanda into supervised camps. In late 1998, the authorities ordered them to move to officially designated villages, even though Rwandans have traditionally lived spread out in rural areas. People who resisted the forced relocation were fined or imprisoned. Most villages did not have essential services such as water, schools and clinics, and residents had to walk long distances to farm their fields. This policy has led to higher levels of malnutrition in northwestern Rwanda than in the rest of the country.
In 1998, the Rwandan government sent troops into the DRC. The invasion was ostensibly designed to put an end to the incursions by Hutu extremists. But after the troops destroyed the rebel bases, the Rwandan government sent them hundreds of kilometres into Congolese territory. Rwandan troops have repeatedly clashed in the DRC with soldiers from Uganda, their erstwhile allies.
In early 1999, the government organised the first elections since the genocide. The ballot - which was not secret - was to elect officials at the two most local levels of government. In mid-1999, Rwandan national leaders decreed that the current government would remain in power for at least another four years. Under the 1994 Arusha Accords, the government had a five-year mandate.
(EB 14/02/00)
Tags: genocide, mass graves, Rwanda