Military Rule in Rwanda Still, the issue of ethnicity remained powerful. Each ethnic group held onto the memories of massacres in the past, and for the predominantly Hutu establishment, Tutsis remained scapegoats of convenience. For instance, Kayibanda was born in a southern region of the country, while Habyarimana came from the north. Southerners, however, blamed Habyarimana's perhaps favoritism for the north on Tutsi plots and machinations. In 1974 a public outcry developed over Tutsi over representation in fields such as medicine and education. Thousands of Tutsi were forced to resign from such positions, and many were forced into exile. In associated violence several hundred Tutsi were killed. In 1975, President Habyarimana formed the Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour la Démocratie et le Développement (MRND) whose goals were to promote peace, unity, and national development.
The movement was organized from the "hillside" to the national level and included elected and appointed officials.Under MRND, Rwandans went to the polls in December 1978, overwhelmingly endorsed a new constitution and confirmed Habyarimana as president. President Habyarimana was re-elected in 1983 and again in 1988, when he was the sole candidate. Responding to public pressure for political reform, President Habyarimana announced in July 1990 his intention to transform Rwanda's one-party state into a multi-party democracy.
On October 1,1990 the RPF invaded Rwanda from their base in neighboring Uganda. The rebel force, composed primarily of ethnic Tutsis, blamed the government for failing to democratize and resolve the problems of some 500,000 Tutsi refugees living in diaspora around the world. The Tutsi diaspora miscalculated the reaction of its invasion of Rwanda. Though the Tutsi objective seemed to be to pressure the Rwandan government into making concessions, the invasion was seen as an attempt to bring the Tutsi ethnic group back into power. The effect was to increase ethnic tensions to a level higher than they had ever been and this caused genocide of 1994 that killed more than 1.000.000 people.
Rwandan history and the Colonial Times Rwanda History and Catholic Influence • Rwandan history and strife for Independence • Rwandan History and Military rule • Rwandan history and Genocide aftermath and Peace |
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