LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1. INTRODUCTION
3.3. THE GENOCIDE IN RWANDA: APRIL-JULY 1994
3.3.4. Socio-economic reconstruction in Rwanda
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to 237 USD in 1999 (FAO. 2()()..l). The genocide and the war had a particularly devastating effect on agriculture unci the rural economy. The cconomy or Rwanda has been overwhelmingly agricultural. with coffee exports accounting for more than 70 percent of its foreign exchange and tea 1'01' more than 10 percent. Inadequate subsistence agriculture. however. has hecn the dominant feature of the economy. with heavy infusions of foreign aid I'equired to meet food shortages (Encyclopaedia Britannica CD. 1999). The new regime would have to pay money borrowed from international financial institutions and money spent to implement genocide. In ovember 1995. the Egyptian Office of M i Iitary Imell igence wrote to The Rwandan government to demand one million dollars. duc at the "Credit Lyonnais" Bank in London. part payment for weapons uncleI' thc mills contract signed in March 19()2. This debt was eventually paid (Melvern. 2000:225)
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In its effort towards reconciliCllion and social I·cconstruction. new leadcrs set up a government or national unity. a forum of political pRrties. a nationRI committec of unity and reconciliation and GacacCl courts. Thcy also involvcd womcn in rccon. truction or the country, invested a lot in education and attempted to re-integrate thc ex-Forces Armees Rwandaises (FAR) into the national army (Izabiliza, 2007: Vesperini, 2004).
The government of national unity was sworn in just after the genocide according to the Arusha Accords on power sharing (Prendergasl. 1999).
It
comprised the representatives or all political parties apart from the Mml1'ement Repuhlicain National 1J()lIr 10Democratie et le Developpement r'MR DD). Twelve of the eighteen Ministers were Hutu (Melvern. 2000:222).
The political parties forum was set-up R:-' [1 connict resolution slrategy and preventive diplomacy (Rusagara. 2004:7). According to article S6 of the constitution: the forum is mainly responsible for facilitating the exchange of ideas by political organisations on major issues facing the country; consolidating national unity; advising on national policy: acting as mediators in connict arising between political organisations and assisting in resolving internal conflicts \,vithin a political organisation upon request (Rusagara. 2004:7: 20). This is complemented by debates on national unity which comprises of discussion sessions among leaders or different political pal1ies with civil society participation. Topics during discussion are national unity. justice and history (Adejeji. 1999).
The Rwandan government has established a ational Committee of Unity and Reconciliation. The Committee is complicated by the ract that Genocide survivors speak of the need for justice before reconciliation and for the prosecution of the crimes of genocide that took the lives of nearly a million people. Survivors stress that forgiveness is only possible if the author or the crimc is willing to admit that there was a crime.
However. many of the perpetrators or [he genocide who are still at large deny the existence of the genocide (Hamilton. 2000). This task differs from the process in other countries. For example. reconciliation has been possible in South A frica because or
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recognition of guilt and becmlsc or the possihility' \)1' the Nurcmberg-style proccss. In Rwanda by contrast. recognition of guilt ~nd prospects for reconciliation have been minimal. The effort towal"ds reconciliation includcd also the introduction oC new ID cards without mentioning ethnicity which \\as nn illlp0l"lanl step towards rcconciliation (Adejeji, 1999).
Concerning the difficult road to reconciliation and forgiveness, Rwanda also established popular tribunals "The Gacaca". a traditional process which could help to decrease the big number of prisoners. Facts on what happened during thc 1994 genocide regardless of social tatus are provided through Gacaca tribunal courts. (iocaca courts are taking place currently in Rwanda. As the judicial system had collap~ed completely. the only way to I"esolve the problem of prison overcrowding for the Government has been the Gacaca tribunals. despite their limitations ( uwamanya.2005).
Despite the legacy of the 1994 genocide the government has be-en investing a lot in education. A remarkable recovcry has been made, numerically and qualitatively.
particularly at the primary level. Rwanda envisions a key role for education in the government's efforts to improve the social and economic well-being of the population (World Bank, 2003). In 199R. the government set up a natiollal fund to mobilise resources to provide systematic financial support to thc survivol"s of the gcnocide. A census has been conducted which gave the number and the socio-e :onomic description of the group comprising mainly orphan. to obtain a better knowledge of their needs ( . dejej i 1999). The fund was cstahli.hed by law and is capital i cd h
y
an a1I0cat ion of 5 percent of domestic revenues. The fir. t disbursements wcre made in 2000 [0 nhout 33,000 student. (World Bank, 2003: 24). However, this fund supports mainly orphans in secondary school. In 2001-2002, the education sector made good pn~gress in terms of access with a 2.7% increase in groc;s enrolments in the primary t~c1ucation, a 19%increase in secondary cducation and Cl
17(Yo
increase in higher educatioll (MI ECOfIN, 2002:305). The aim and objectives of the educ~tion policy is povcl"ty J'i~duction. human resource development and national unity <lnci reconciliatio (M1NECC!FIN. 2002). To51
illustrate the key role of education in reconciliation. authorities preferred to suspend the teaching of history of Rwand~ to avoid controversies due to different interpretations (Miser. 2004).
As causes of genocide are different so are nlternativc solutions after they oceul'. This is illustrated by Mamdani (2001:39):
"The Nazi Holocaust breathed life into the Zionist demand that Jews too must have a political home. a nation-state of their own; few have argued that the Rwandan genocide calls for the building of a Tutsi-Iand in the region. While Europe 'solved' its political cri. is by exporting it to the Middle East, Africa has no place to export its pol itical crisis",
In coming to terms with what happened in 1094 where many Rwandans lost everything and live in abject poverty. Rwandan society still has a big challenge (Miser. 2004: 15).
One of the earliest proposals for socio-cconomic reconstruction was the "Rondoval plan" proposed by the United at ions Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR) to the Secretary General and the Security Council of the United Nations (Teckle. 1999:125), /t proposed measures for national reconciliation and the creation of conditions for the return of displaced persons to their homes. It expressed the need for donors to SUppOJ1 the Rwandan Government and asked the government [0 ensure respect for human rights.
It also contained the need to establish an International Tribunal to try those alleged to he responsible for the massacres and genocide in Rwanda and support the government In the establishment ofa land commission to get the country back to normality,
In terms of development and services. Rwanda has an annual publication which provides empirical data that can be used by policy-makers and analysts to monitor Rwanda's development in Rwanda, poverty reduction and progress towards a range of goals set by various UN summits. It also encompasses Rwanda's own targets for Millenium Development and Vision 2020 'with the goal to "exit the category of least developed country by the year 2020" (MINF,COr:JN, 2002: 5) .The main aim of
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Millenium development and Vision 2020 goals is to help Rwanda come out of under- development and poverty hy 8chieving hoth the economic growth goals and the objectives related to the social indicators, In [his regard, the Finance Ministry has adopted what is called The Poverty Reduction Strategies Papers (PRSP) (Bugabo, 2005:2), It was finalised and endOl'sed by 811 internal and external stakeholders in 2002, In 2003 and 2004 annual progress reports were published, It is an important progress marker in Rwanda's long term vision to reduce the proportion of Rwandans living below the poverty line from 60% to 25% and raise per capita incomes n'om $250 to above $1 000. Areas to be tackled urgently in order to meet its major goal of fighting poverty and accelerating economic development include: rural development and agricultural transformation. human development (education and health), economic infrastructure develormenl. reinl()rcing institutional capacity, private sector development and good governance (MII 'ICOfl .2002: 2),
Rwanda launched a national programme of house huilding in 1995. Houses built in villages have the objectives of changing the disrersed habitat in the country and equipping villages with basic infrastructure, One of the criteria of settlement in those villages is multi-ethnicity (Adejeji, 1999). In other areas of development and reconstruction, a network of telecommunication systems and road is being developed for the whole region (Miser, 2004),
In the reconstruction of Rwanda. the humanitarian assistance is focused on vulnerable groups. especially women. Women are central to reconstruction (Hamilton. 2000), GOs and donors have recognised the potential henefits of groups of women in reconstruction and development and have assisted to create new ones, The number of women in relation to the whole population is elevated in Rwanda hecause of the greater number of men killed during the genocide and war. and absence of male groups of ex- soldiers and "genocidaires" who have ned to Congo (Choices Magazine, 2004:
Izabiliza, 2007). Women now shoulder a greater burden of economic activity and reconstruction activities in Rwanda, This is aggravated by the fact that many adult men