The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
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Oct. 26, 1961: Grégoire Kayib<strong>and</strong>a <strong>of</strong> Parmehutu is elected President<br />
<strong>of</strong> the First Republic. <strong>The</strong> massacres <strong>and</strong> exiling <strong>of</strong> Tutsis continues.<br />
Nobody cares, not at the national or at the international level.<br />
1 July 1962: <strong>The</strong> independence <strong>of</strong> Rw<strong>and</strong>a is proclaimed. Kigeri V is<br />
driven out <strong>of</strong> Rw<strong>and</strong>a. He goes in<strong>to</strong> exile; this is, as always, accompanied<br />
by a bloodbath.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Second Republic<br />
July 5, 1973: Major General Juvenal Habyarimana, Minister <strong>of</strong> Defence,<br />
carries out a military coup. Some say there has been no<br />
bloodshed, yet Tutsis are killed. But since killing Tutsis has become<br />
normal, once again, nobody cares. Nobody is ever punished for<br />
killing Tutsis between 1959 <strong>and</strong> 1994. Thirty-five years <strong>of</strong> impunity.<br />
Rw<strong>and</strong>a has become the largest producer <strong>of</strong> refugees.<br />
Whenever the Tutsis are massacred, the survivors flee the country.<br />
Young people excluded from education risk escaping the country <strong>to</strong><br />
try <strong>to</strong> study abroad – for Tutsi are not issued passports. And since<br />
the regime <strong>of</strong> Juvenal Habyarimana has become dicta<strong>to</strong>rial, even<br />
the Hutu begin <strong>to</strong> flee the country.<br />
1 Oct. 1990: Led by Major Fred Rwigyema, the Rw<strong>and</strong>an Patriotic<br />
Army (RPA) launches an <strong>of</strong>fensive against Rw<strong>and</strong>a from Ug<strong>and</strong>a.<br />
Fred Rwigema is killed on the second day. He is replaced by Major<br />
General Paul Kagame. This is known as the Inkotanyi invasion.<br />
Oct. 4, 1990: <strong>The</strong> Rw<strong>and</strong>an authorities complain <strong>of</strong> a Inkotanyi invasion<br />
from neighbouring Ug<strong>and</strong>a. <strong>The</strong> regime organizes a staged<br />
farce <strong>to</strong> “prove” the entrance <strong>of</strong> the RPF in<strong>to</strong> Kigali. <strong>The</strong> soldiers<br />
spend the night shooting in the air <strong>to</strong> scare the Westerners, who<br />
flee the next day, <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong> make the people <strong>of</strong> the city <strong>of</strong> Kigali believe<br />
that the Patriotic Front fighters have arrived in the capital as<br />
the result <strong>of</strong> an internal plot. <strong>The</strong> authorities conduct extensive<br />
raids in the Tutsi community, arresting a <strong>to</strong>tal <strong>of</strong> 7887 individuals by<br />
the final <strong>of</strong>ficial count, <strong>of</strong> which 4300 are released in February<br />
1991, following international pressure. France accepts the charge<br />
<strong>of</strong> external aggression <strong>and</strong> dispatches two companies <strong>and</strong> a “military-technical<br />
unit” armed with mortars in “Operation Chillwind”,<br />
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