Rwanda: From Genocide to Precarious Peace

348 Pages·2018·9.501 MB·English

by  Susan Thomson

RWANDA
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RWANDA
From Genocide
to Precarious Peace
s u s a n t h o m s o n
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
iii
Copyright © 2018 Susan Thomson
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form
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Printed in Great Britain by Gomer Press Ltd, Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958709
ISBN 978-0-300-19739-6
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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CONTENTS
List of Plates, Maps and Tables vii
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xii
Introduction: The “New” Rwanda 1
PART I Genocide, and its Causes and Consequences
1 Genocide: Power Politics, not Ethnic Hatred 17
2 The Roots of the Genocidal State 39
3 Refugee Rebels: Preparing for Civil War 55
PART II Transitioning to Peace?
4 A Semblance of Normality 79
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CONTENTS
5 Securing People and Place 97
6 Control at Home and Abroad 119
7 Militarized Democracy 131
PART III Setting Up for Success
8 State, Party, Family 145
9 Good Citizens 166
10 Conformity or Else 181
PART IV The Fruits of Liberation
11 Rules, Rules and More Rules 203
12 Friends Only 221
Epilogue: The Politics of “Never Again” 242
Notes 256
Glossary 289
Index 293
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PLATES, MAPS AND TABLES
Plates
1. Belgian paratroopers guard a group of alleged Hutu arsonists
during Rwanda’s Social Revolution, September 1960. © René
Lemarchand.
2. A patron and his clients, Goma, 1961. © René Lemarchand.
3. Rwandans in makeshift grass homes, Byumba prefecture, 1992.
Courtesy of Jim Lavery.
4. Civilians listen to a member of the security services in the Sainte-
Famille Catholic church, May 1994. © Corinne Dufka.
5. Rwandan children after the destruction of their orphanage, Kigali,
May 1994. © Corinne Dufka.
6. Hutu men accused of participating in the genocide line up at a
detention center in Kabuga, June 1994. © Corinne Dufka.
7. Major-General Guy Tousignant of the United Nations Assistance
Mission for Rwanda discusses prison conditions with the RPF
warden in Kirambo, April 1995. © Thomas Roach.
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PLATES, MAPS AND TABLES
8. Internally displaced Rwandans wait outside a hospital complex in
Kibeho camp, May 1995. © Mark Cuthbert-Brown.
9. Hutu refugees rest next to the old Muginga refugee camps near
Goma, November 1996. © Reuters.
10. Remains of victims of the genocide at the Murambi Genocide
Museum, July 2006. © Susan Thomson.
11. Women at work, Gisenyi, 2007. © Aubrey Graham.
12. An RPF soldier stands watch as voters queue to cast their ballot in
local elections in Kigali, February 2011. © Graham Holliday.
13. A primary school classroom, Western Province, June 2014. ©
Sarah Heatherton.
14. The central roundabout in Kigali, May 2016. © Cyril Ndegeya.
15. Female road sweepers, Kigali, May 2016. © Cyril Ndegeya.
Maps
1. Administrative boundaries during the civil war and 1994 p. xvi
genocide, including RPF offensive positions, 1993–94.
2. Administrative boundaries from 2006, with revised p. xvii
town names.
Tables
1. Rwandan Refugees in Neighboring Countries, p. 34
August 1994.
2. Hierarchy of the Rwandan State under Habyarimana p. 52
(1975–94).
3. Postgenocide Socio-economic Hierarchy in Rwanda. p. 155
4. Hierarchy of the Rwandan State, 2006 to 2011. p. 204
5. Fines in Francs for Forbidden or Compulsory p. 208
Activities, 2006.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
You would not be holding this book in your hands if it were not for my
formidable (and female) editorial team at Yale University Press. Phoebe
Clapham encouraged me to start the project. Heather McCallum,
Marika Lysandrou, Rachael Lonsdale and Samantha Cross brought it
to the finish line. A special thank you to Marika and Rachael for
supporting this work in large and small ways.
Marie-Eve Desrosiers and Rosalind Raddatz deserve special thanks
for their constructive criticism and fierce belief in my project. Among
my many cheerleaders are colleagues who are also friends. Throughout
the course of writing Jennie Burnet, Marie-Eve Desrosiers and Noel
Twagiramungu fielded my many questions to help me better under-
stand the beautiful, complex and troubled country we all love. Catharine
Newbury offered helpful advice in the final stage of writing, for which I
am appreciative. I also benefited from email exchanges with journalists,
academics, students and military men, Rwandan and foreign, who
generously answered all of my questions about this or that event they
had witnessed or researched.
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