Reconciliation and Memory in Modern Rwanda

Department of Political Science Chair of Comparative Public Law Constitutional rebuilding after the genocide: reconciliation and memory in modern Rwanda Supervisor Co-Supervisor Prof.ssa Cristina Fasone Prof.ssa Valentina Gentile Candidate Francesco Infante Student ID 639192 ACADEMIC YEAR 2019/2020 It is not “forgive and forget” as if nothing wrong had ever happened, but “forgive and go forward”, building on the mistakes of the past and the energy generated by reconciliation to create a new future. Alan Paton 2 Table of contents ~ INTRODUCTION ~ 5 ~ CHAPTER ONE ~ 11 BRIEF HISTORY OF RWANDA FROM THE GERMANS TO PAUL KAGAME 11 Introduction 11 From the origins to the Germans 13 Belgians in Rwanda: divide et impera 15 Independence 18 One hundred days of genocide 24 The Aftermath 34 ~ CHAPTER TWO ~ 36 POST-GENOCIDE TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND THE GACACA COURTS 36 Introduction 36 What is Transitional Justice? 38 The Gacaca Courts: implementation and trials 42 Goals of Gacaca 44 The defendant’s Journey at Gacaca 56 The Government point of view on Gacaca 56 The international view on Gacaca 57 Reconciliation after mass atrocities in Rwanda 59 Systems and programs for reconciliation 60 Reconciliation villages 64 ~ CHAPTER THREE ~ 67 CONSTITUTION MAKING PROCESS AND THE NEW GOVERNMENT 67 Introduction 67 Constitution: the historical path 68 The text 70 Article 10 and related “genocide ideology law” 71 3 The 2015 Constitutional Reform process 75 The Judiciary 79 The Supreme Court 80 The High Court 80 Other Courts 81 Applicable Law 82 The role of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs 83 Fairness of trials in Rwanda 83 The Judiciary and the fight against Corruption 84 The legislative branch 85 The Parliament 85 The representation of women 86 The Executive 87 The President: Paul Kagame 87 The Vision 2020 89 The Catholic Church-State relation 91 Illiberal state-building? 92 Key Constitutional Developments timeline from 1991 95 ~ CHAPTER FOUR ~ 98 THE ROLE OF MEMORY IN A POST-GENOCIDE SOCIETY 98 Introduction 98 Post-1945 Europe 100 Rwanda 102 Collective Memory 104 The moral witness 109 Forgiveness in religion 110 ~ CONCLUSION ~ 113 APPENDIX 117 GLOSSARY 125 BIBLIOGRAPHY 126 ONLINE SOURCES 143 INTERVIEWS 149 SUMMARY 150 4 ~ INTRODUCTION ~ The Rwandan genocide that took place between April and July 1994 was often portrayed by the media and public opinion as an ethnic and tribal war that had little to do with Western society and civilization and was therefore not only unworthy of media relevance, but also incomprehensible. When someone defines a conflict, especially if it is African, as "tribal" he does so in order to give a shadow of unintelligibility to it. The media and political agents use this term to ensure that the western population and readers do not care about the issue and do not allow themselves to be pushed into wanting to find the causes. The genocide of Rwanda, like all the wars fought in Africa in the 20th century, had nothing tribal or ancestral about it, on the contrary it was expressly of a political, economic and post-colonial nature. Like all the genocides that occurred in the second half of the last century, although preventable, it was not stopped by the United Nations and the international community but only by a military intervention of an organized army (Vietnamese is Cambodia, USSR in Poland). The events that took place in Rwanda in 1994 were openly recognized by the international community as genocide only at the end of it. Usually, in fact, while an extermination is taking place, the great powers such as the United States, China, Russia, France and England, deliberately avoid recognizing it as genocide, because given the International Convention of 1948, they would be obliged to intervene. Therefore, they limit themselves to defining it as ethnic or tribal war. The United States after the defeat in Somalia had no intention of engaging in another confrontation in the heart of Africa that the public would not have understood, China, Russia and England had never had any interest in the area, while France's role was as great as it was shameful and destructive. It is thanks to the government of Paris, in fact, that so many weapons and funding arrived in Kigali between 1993 and 1994. The limits, which have always been attributed to the executive body of the United Nations, the Security Council, came to light in 1994 in the Rwandan case, as had already happened in Cambodia and as would have happened in Bosnia and Darfur shortly afterwards. Like the Rwandan one, other great exterminations of the 20th century were recognized as genocides only when they were over (Bosnia, Armenia, Cambodia and Kurdistan). The veto power held by the Big 5 has constantly obstructed joint actions under Article VII of the UN Charter and such atrocities have been stopped only by interventions of national armies like the Vietnamese one against the Khmer Rouge or the FPR against the Hutu militia. The term genocide comes from the Greek γένος 'lineage'. It was coined by Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin in 1944 and first used in public in Nuremberg to describe the horrors committed by 5 Nazi-Fascism. Lemkin analyzing the Nazi system describes it as sophisticated and well-orchestrated, only in this way was it possible to achieve such a degree of brutality. The Rwandan genocide was similarly prepared by an elite who, faced with an economic and political crisis, selfishly tried to save themselves by blinding their people with hatred and throwing the Hutu majority against the Tutsi minority. In the present study we will see how even the division on ethnic and racial basis is unrealistically determinable and how this too has been the result of meticulously studied media and political manipulation. The de-humanization of the rival has always been one of the tactics used by genocidaires. The Nazis called the Jews rats and the Hutus called the Tutsis cockroaches, comparing them to an animal by nature dirty, disease-carrying and slipping everywhere. De-humanization uses explicit strategies, which openly deny the humanity of the other, and subtle strategies, which unconsciously erode the participation of others in humanity. The man affirms his superiority over the animal and fears its behavior. Therefore, when the man animalizes his fellow man by calling him with the name of a beast, he gradually removes his human character and equates him with the beast, justifying with the passage of time his attitudes of repulsion and hatred. Media propaganda at the same time played a central role. The genocidaires based their violent promotion on a document entitled 'act on propaganda of expansion and recruitment', found in Butare. The author applied the techniques studied by Goebbels and Lenin, according to which it was necessary to use lies and exaggerations to attack the enemy. More precisely, the tactic used was that of the accusation in the mirror, according to which whoever used violence, must first charge the other with violence to justify his own. In this, first Radio Rwanda and then RTLM, were masters and under the guidance of the government, they made simple farmers who had always been dedicated to the work of the land, bloodthirsty murderers capable of killing the members of their own family. The present work, however, does not aim to recount the genocide and the tragic events that marked it in 1994. Since there have already been countless testimonies and studies of that period, I would like to answer questions about the events that followed. This study is intended to analyze the effects of the policies of reconstruction and reconciliation 25 years after the genocide. It is in continuity with the analysis previously made by Phil Clark dated 2010 and tries to find some answers to the questions he asked during his study. To do this, however, it will be necessary to tell the history of the country and highlight the causes that led to ethnic and racial division and therefore to genocide. Understanding what happened before 1994 is essential to be able to judge whether there has been a real change of course since 2000 or whether what we are witnessing is a simple and usual regime change following a war. The work will show how the process of reconstruction of the state and its three powers took place, the role of the Gacaca courts will be analyzed and the importance of memory 6 and forgiveness in the reconciliation process will be highlighted. To do this, I have divided the work into four chapters. The first chapter, of historical nature, will analyze the history of the country. Using mainly the texts of Chrétien and Prunier, I will analyze the events that marked the 20th century in Rwanda. The German domination represented the first contact between Europeans and the Rwandan people, who at the time were led by a monarchy. The state was divided into 12 tribes and the division of the people was more regional than ethnic. In fact, each tribe had both Hutus and Tutsis within it. There are no written sources prior to German domination and therefore everything known about the pre- 1900s is due to oral tradition. After the defeat in the Great War, the Germans handed over the protectorate of Rwanda-Urundi to Belgium, which administered it until 1960. The Belgians introduced a new way of governing. They were more socially present than their predecessors and brought innovations such as schools, hospitals and public institutions. The Belgians, however, also introduced an identity card with the race of each citizen, which was transmitted from father to son. Gradually the Belgians, following the 'divide et impera' method, gave more and more power to the Tutsi minority (15%) because they were the richest and wealthiest of the time.

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