Freedom in the World 2001 - Rwanda

2001 Scores

Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 6.5
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 7

Overview

In 2000, the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) maintained its predominant role, although there were a number of important changes in the nation's senior leadership. President Pasteur Bizimungu resigned in March and was replaced by Vice President Paul Kagame, who had already been the de facto leader of the country. A new prime minister, Bernard Makuza, was appointed. The president of the national assembly fled into exile in the United States and was replaced. At year's end, preparations were underway for municipal elections which, although non-party in nature, are supposed to be held by secret ballot, unlike local elections in 1999. The security situation remained generally peaceful, with refugee reintegration continuing to take place.

Rwanda's ethnic divide is deeply rooted. National boundaries demarcated by Belgian colonists led to often violent competition for power within the fixed borders of a modern state. Traditional and Belgian-abetted Tutsi dominance ended with a Hutu rebellion in 1959 and independence in 1962. Hundreds of thousands of Tutsi were killed or fled the country in recurring violence during the next decades. In 1990, the RPF launched a guerrilla war to force the Hutu regime led by General Juvenal Habyarimana to accept power sharing and the return of Tutsi refugees. The Hutus' chauvinist solution to claims to land and power by Rwanda's Tutsi minority, which constituted approximately 15 percent of the pregenocide population, was to pursue their elimination as a people.

The 1994 genocide was launched after the suspicious deaths of President Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira in a plane crash in Kigali. The ensuing massacres had been well plotted. Piles of imported machetes were distributed, and death lists were broadcast by radio. A small United Nations force in Rwanda fled as the killings spread and Tutsi rebels advanced. French troops intervened in late 1994, not to halt the genocide, but in a futile effort to preserve some territory for the crumbling genocidal regime that was so closely linked to the French government.

International relief efforts that eased the suffering among more than two million Hutu refugees along Rwanda's frontiers also allowed retraining and rearming of large numbers of former government troops. The UN, which had earlier ignored specific warnings of an impending genocide in 1994, failed to prevent such activities, and the Rwandan army took direct action, overrunning refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Nearly three million refugees subsequently returned to Rwanda between 1996 and 1998. Security has improved considerably since 1997, although isolated incidents of killings and "disappearances" continue.

The government, led by the Tutsi-dominated RPF closely directs the country's political life. In 1999, it extended the transition period after which multiparty national elections could be held for an additional four years, arguing that the move was necessary because the poor security situation in the country did not permit elections to be held. Carefully controlled, nonparty local elections were held in 1999. The region continued to be highly unstable as Rwandans and Ugandans remained deeply implicated in the civil strife of the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. This climate of unrest greatly complicates efforts to improve the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Rwanda's economy is only now reaching pre-1990 production levels. The government's intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo conflict has complicated economic development. Production of Rwanda's staple crop, coffee, suffered in 1998 and 1999, and with commodity prices low, export revenue dropped precipitously.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Rwandans have never enjoyed their right to democratically choose their government. The government announced in 1999 that national multiparty elections would not take place until 2003 at the earliest. The current, self-appointed government is dominated by the RPF, but also includes several other political parties. The legislature is unicameral. Comprising 70 members, it was appointed in 1994 for a five-year term by the RPF-dominated government. Its mandate was extended by the government in June 1999 for a further four years. Municipal elections that had been scheduled for October 2000 were postponed to early 2001, because of legal and administrative delays.

Rwanda's basic governance charter is the Fundamental Law, an amalgam of the 1991 constitution, two agreements among various parties and groups, and the RPF's own 1994 declaration of governance. Political parties closely identified with the 1994 massacres are banned, and parties based on ethnicity or religion barred. Several other political parties operate and participate in government. There is some Hutu representation in the government, including Prime Minister Makuza, who is from the mainly Hutu Republican Democratic Movement (MDR) party.

Constitutional and legal safeguards regarding arrest procedures and detention are unevenly applied. The near destruction of Rwanda's legal system and the death or exile of most of the judiciary has dramatically impeded the government's ability to administer post genocide justice. To help address this problem, the government has moved ahead with preparations to revive a traditional court system, the Gacaca, where elders will preside over community trials dealing with the less serious genocide offenses. By the end of 2000 this system, which requires the election of some 256,000 judges, had not yet become operational, and some observers expressed concern about its potential for partiality or the application of uneven or arbitrary standards.

There are two concurrent tribunals with jurisdiction over those accused of the 1994 genocide. The UN has set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. The tribunal, similar to that in The Hague dealing with those accused of crimes against humanity and genocide in the former Yugoslavia, is composed of international jurists. As the ICTR cannot impose the death penalty, many in Rwanda oppose it, and for the same reason, those accused of serious crimes attempt to have their cases heard there.

According to a report by the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) Special Representative, while the number of prisoners had decreased slightly since 1999, lack of resources and the drought of the past year have created serious difficulties. Some of those incarcerated for common law crimes went without eating for days, while overcrowding forced prisoners to be divided into shifts for sitting or sleeping.

Rwandan media are officially censored and constrained by fears of reprisals. Journalists accused of abetting or participating in genocide have been arrested. The state controls the broadcast media, and the few independent newspapers publishing in Kigali reportedly exercise considerable self-censorship. The role of the media in Rwanda has become a contentious test case for media freedom and responsibility. During the genocide, 50 journalists were murdered, while others broadcast incitements to the slaughter.

Local nongovernmental organizations such as the Collective Rwandan Leagues and Associations for the Defense of Human Rights operate openly. International human rights groups and relief organizations are also active. Numerous clerics were among both the victims and perpetrators of the genocide. Religious freedom is generally respected.

There is serious de facto discrimination against women despite legal protection for equal rights. Economic and social dislocation has forced women to take on many new roles, especially in the countryside. Constitutional provisions for labor rights include the right to form trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and strike. The Central Union of Rwandan Workers, which was closely controlled by the previous regime, now has relatively greater independence.