Amnesty, Reintegration, and Reconciliation in Rwanda

Summary

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During the entire period of Hutu governance, Tutsis became the scapegoats for all failed policies and suffered decreased educational opportunities, segregation from government positions, removal from positions of influence as teachers and judges, and massacre at the hands of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR).5 Resentment from the societal divide has always threatened Rwanda's security environment with instability. Failures by both the Hum-led government of President Juvenal Habyarimana and the RPF bogged down the comprehensive peace plan.\n MDRP has four objectives in Rwanda: * Demobilize an estimated 36,000 ex-combatants from the RPF and other armed groups and support their transition to civilian life. * Support the repatriation of ex-FAR in the spirit of the Arusha Agreement. * Support the social and economic reintegration of all demobilized ex-combatants who remain socioeconomically vulnerable. * Facilitate the reallocation of government expenditures from defense to the social and economic sectors.22 Founded in 2002 by the World Bank, the MDRP coordinates funding, but the funds come from a multitude of sources.

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Extract

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Amnesty, Reintegration, and Reconciliation in Rwanda

IMAGINE EVERY MAN, woman, and child in an American city of 781,000 brutally murdered in four months, the victims mostly hacked to death with machetes. In 1994, Rwanda, which lies at the crossroads of the Great Lakes Region of central Africa, experienced murder on such a scale-a genocidal frenzy. The following discussion examines what conditions could possibly set off such a horrific slaughter and how the country has attempted to recover from the calamity.

Until 6 April 1994, few people in the world knew about Rwanda or its rich _, history. Even as the slaughter occurred, the world knew little of the event, or that the major players in Rwanda's internecine holocaust lived well beyond Rwandan borders. The country's colonizers, Belgium and Germany, and world powers such as the United States and France helped create the conditions for genocide as much as the Hutus and Tutsis themselves did.

A Legacy of Hatred

Rwanda was born of European colonialism. The calculated policies of Belgium, Germany, and France divided Rwanda against itself for easier colonial rule. These policies of 19th century rule had a l...

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