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Rwanda Assessment Rwanda, Country Information http://194.203.40.90/ppage.asp?section=191&title=Rwanda%2C%20Country%20Information RWANDA ASSESSMENT October 2001 Country Information and Policy Unit The Country Information and Policy Unit conducted a fact-finding mission to Rwanda between 5-27 March 2002. The purpose of the mission was to verify and update information contained in the October 2001 assessment and to collect additional information to assist in the determination of asylum applications from Rwandan nationals in the United Kingdom. The report of the fact-finding mission, which will also reflect other material that has been available in the meanwhile, will be published on this site as soon as it is finalised. A comprehensive country assessment incorporating this material will be produced in the normal way in October 2002. I SCOPE OF DOCUMENT II GEOGRAPHY III HISTORY IV INSTRUMENTS OF THE STATE V HUMAN RIGHTS ANNEX A: CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS 1899-2001 ANNEX B: PROMINENT PEOPLE ANNEX C: COMMON ABBREVIATIONS/POLITICAL GROUPS BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. SCOPE OF DOCUMENT 1.1 This assessment has been produced by the Country Information and Policy Unit, Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office, from information obtained from a variety of sources. 1.2 The assessment has been prepared for background purposes for those involved in the asylum determination process. The information it contains is not exhaustive, nor is it intended to catalogue all human rights violations. It concentrates on the issues most commonly raised in asylum claims made in the United Kingdom. 1.3 The assessment is sourced throughout. It is intended to be used by caseworkers as a signpost to the source material, which has been made available to them. The vast majority of the source material is readily available in the public domain. 1 of 76 07/11/2002 5:39 PM Rwanda, Country Information http://194.203.40.90/ppage.asp?section=191&title=Rwanda%2C%20Country%20Information 1.4 It is intended to revise the assessment on a six-monthly basis, while the country remains within the top 35 asylum producing countries in the United Kingdom. An electronic copy of the assessment has been made available to the following organisations: Amnesty International UK Immigration Advisory Service Immigration Appellate Authority Immigration Law Practitioners' Association Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants JUSTICE Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture Refugee Council Refugee Legal Centre UN High Commissioner for Refugees II. GEOGRAPHY A. Location and climate 2.1 The Republic of Rwanda is a land-locked country in east-central Africa, just south of the Equator, bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) to the west, by Uganda to the north, by Tanzania to the east and by Burundi to the south.[3a] Like Burundi, Rwanda is distinctive for the small size of its territory. Covering an area of only 26,338 square kilometres (10,169 square miles).[3b] The capital is Kigali.[3a] 2.2 The climate is tropical, although affected by altitude, being hot and humid in the lowlands but cooler in the highlands. The main rainy season is from February to May.[3a] Although the land supports a high population density, physical conditions are not very favourable. The land mass is very rugged and fragmented, with a series of sharply defined hills, deep valleys and marshy plains, whilst the north is dominated by a chain of volcanoes, the Virunga. [3b] 2.3 Following an announcement at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit on 1 July 1999, Rwanda left the Central Africa regional grouping, (to which it had belonged), to join that of the East Africa group.[43a] 2.4 On 1 October 1999 the Rwandan government decided on a change to the country's national flag and motto. The new flag will be coloured blue and green and feature a sunrise in 2 of 76 07/11/2002 5:39 PM Rwanda, Country Information http://194.203.40.90/ppage.asp?section=191&title=Rwanda%2C%20Country%20Information the middle. The new motto will be 'unity, work, patriotism' to replace 'liberty, co-operation, progress', which has been used in Rwanda since its independence from Belgium in 1962. The government has requested that contests be held to create a new national anthem, with suitable words, inspired by the new motto. Changing the flag, motto, anthem, names of streets and public places is a bid by the government to build national reconciliation. It has not been announced when these new elements will become effective from . [38q] 2.5 On 14 August 2000 a draft law was put to parliament to consider changes to the country's administrative divisions. The proposal includes changing "prefecture" to "region" and "commune" to "district". "Sector" and "cellule" would remain unchanged. The urban structures proposed are "city", "municipality", "town" and "trading centre".[46k] B. Population 2.6 The population of Rwanda is composed of three ethnic groups; about 85% is estimated to be Hutu, 14% Tutsi, and 1% Twa. The census of 15 August 1991, estimated Rwanda's population at 7,142,755. The genocide of 1994 was estimated to have resulted in the death or external displacement of between 35% and 40% of the total population.[3b] On 31 January 2000, Rwanda's total population was estimated at 7.9 million, with the majority (94%) living in the rural areas. Rwanda reportedly remains the least urbanised country in Africa. [38x] 2.7 Over a million refugees had returned to Rwanda by the end of 1996, [12b] and by January 1998, there were estimated to be 72,310 Rwandan refugees in surrounding African states, with the majority, around 37,000, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). At that time, Rwanda was itself host to 31,000 refugees from the DRC and another 3,000 from Burundi.[30b] 2.8 There were reports in March 1999 that the Congolese rebel movement, Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD), would expel Rwandans from some regions in the DRC, on accusation that they were causing insecurity there. No mass expulsion occurred. After a rate of return of Rwandan refugees from northeast DRC, of over 3,000 per month through May, the weekly rate of return fluctuated between 200 and 760. Whilst it was thought likely that the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and the RCD had put pressure on some of the refugees to return to Rwanda, those returnees interviewed by the UNHCR said that their return was voluntary. [14a] On 17 June 2000 the UNHCR said there were still around 60,000 Rwandan refugees in the DRC. Around 45,000 refugees had been repatriated in 1999.[46c] C. Language 2.9 The official languages are French, English (spoken widely by the Tutsi), and the native Kinyarwanda, a Bantu language with close similarities to Kirundi, the main vernacular language of Burundi.[3b] Whilst not an official language, Kiswahili is also widely spoken.[3a] III. HISTORY 3 of 76 07/11/2002 5:39 PM Rwanda, Country Information http://194.203.40.90/ppage.asp?section=191&title=Rwanda%2C%20Country%20Information A. Pre-Colonial Rwanda 3.1 Rwanda's pre-history is a matter of some anthropological and political debate. The country's first inhabitants are thought to have been hunter-gatherers, whose modern-day descendants are the small minority of the Batwa. It is believed that later, successive migrations from the north and east brought farmers and then cattle-herders. Eventually, one clan of cattle-herders, the Nyiginya, members of what is now called the Tutsi group, arrived and came to dominate much of the centre of the country. As the centuries advanced, it consolidated its power, whilst absorbing much of the culture of the Hutu farmers it dominated. This is today reflected in the common language and cultural heritage of the Tutsi and the Hutu.[5] 3.2 It is thought that before the nineteenth century, the separation of the Batwa, Hutu and Tutsi largely corresponded to the occupational categories within a single differentiated group, the Banyarwanda. The vast majority of Batwa remained the marginalised hunter-gatherers of the north-western mountains or potters elsewhere, and were sometimes mistreated by both Tutsi and Hutu. [1a] However, Tutsi and Hutu were less sharply distinct, and as time progressed many Hutus brought cattle, a sign of wealth, and were assimilated into the Tutsi aristocracy, whilst some Tutsis lost their wealth and the privileged position that went with it. Intermarriage between the Hutu and the Tutsi was also not uncommon and contributed to the blurring of tribal distinction between the two. However, there can be little doubt that with time there evolved a sense of second-class citizenship amongst the Hutu, which crystallised as the nineteenth century progressed and the Rwandan state became more centralised and authoritarian under the Tutsi monarchy.[5] B. Colonial Rule, 1899-1962 3.3 By the time of the arrival of the Europeans, Nyiginya Tutsi dominance was a reality for most of central and southern Rwanda, but power was concentrated in hands of a few and there were independent Hutu principalities in the north. [1a] Unlike most African states, Rwanda and its southern neighbour, Burundi, were not artificial creations of colonial rule. Germany was the first to colonise them in 1899, but they had been established kingdoms for several centuries. In 1916, during the First World War, the area was occupied by Belgian forces, and in 1919 [6a] Rwanda became part of Ruanda-Urundi, administered by Belgium under a League of Nations mandate and later, following the Second World War, as a UN Trust Territory.[3b] 3.4 It suited the interests of the colonialists to rule through the existing Tutsi elite, who indicated a willingness to comply, to ensure the preservation of their wealth and position of privilege.
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