Where did the discrimination and hatred come from?

From 1959 to the genocide the Hutu leaders, put in place by the Belgian rule in a last ditch attempt to maintain their presence in Rwanda, implemented a policy of establishing a Hutu power without the Tutsi. Anything that would be felt or suspected to be a potential revival of the Tutsi power, whatsoever, should be considered a serious threat to their monopoly of power.

With this policy put in place, Tutsi have been killed in successive pogroms, and survivors were forced to exile in neighbouring countries. In time the Tutsi Diaspora grew into a small nation with the ambition to go back to their country. The Tutsi inside the country also grew to become around 15- 25 per cent of the population. The official percentage was indefinitely maintained at 15 per cent, but independent sources quote 25 per cent as the probable number of Tutsi before genocide.

Oppression of the Tutsi inside and outside the country led to the development of a rebel army intended to topple the dictatorial regime of Kigali. According to the Tutsi rebels, this attack was the last means to have a right to survive and have a land. However the Hutu government viewed it as a real threat to their more than 30-year old power, and the French considered it to be a terrible threat to their Francophone influence in the region.

True, genocide was planned, organised, and executed by the Hutu power in place from 1973 to 1994, but the ideology of killing Tutsi to damp down their traditional political hegemony originated from the Belgians in the 1940s and 1950s, and was passed on over to the successive Hutu leaders from 1961 to 1994.

As a genocide survivor, I can testify to the unusual courage and stamina of Hutu rescuers who refused drawn into the genocidal cause of the Hutu majority, and who abided by their human or Bible-educated conscience. Their desire and determination to do what was right meant they were at risk of losing their lives, as was the case of a Hutu family of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were killed in Kigali. Their good standing constitutes clear evidence that other Hutu may have acted in the same way, and excuses such as “we have been told to kill them”, or “we killed them because they were Tutsi” are senseless.

Killing is, and remains, a personal choice and should be punished according to the degree of indictment. No human being could logically kill another human being without being accountable for it to a certain extent.

When it comes to the issue of healing Rwanda and its population, it takes courage, humility, and self sacrifice to imagine that Hutu and Tutsi could sit together, get along again, and speak the truth about what happened.

Today, the general trend among Rwandans outside and inside Rwanda, is to consider two camps, namely “the accused and the accusers”, or simply put “the Hutu Genocidaires” or perpetrators of the genocide, and “the Tutsi Victims of genocide”. Although there is some truth in this statement, however, this is not the whole truth. A balanced view of the situation is a necessary prerequisite to the healing process.

In my humble opinion, one of the things that Rwandans should do is to abandon the colonial dichotomy or stereotype of Hutu and Tutsi and view themselves as Rwandan nationals, belonging to the same mother country that they inherited from their ancestors. They must learn their history as it is without labelling it “Tutsi history” or “Hutu history”.

All nations experienced changes in their history, including revolutions and upheavals. We have the examples of the French Revolution, the communist revolution in China and Russia, and many other changes in different countries. Yet all those changes have been taken into account by history and helped successive generations to grasp their past and build their future.

It is sad to hear Hutu say that the Tutsi monarchy served only the Tutsi interests, while the monarchs in traditional Rwanda served the interests of all Rwandans. It is not fair either to forget that even when monarchy was toppled in 1959-1960, Hutu proponents of monarchy like Rukeba and Rwagasana faithfully fought for the reestablishment of the monarchical power. Some Hutu went into exile because they did not support the Hutu move to exterminate the Tutsi. Recently, the rebel army contained Hutu elements who were opposed to the dictatorship of Kigali.

Nonetheless, it is not fair either to think that the 1959 “Hutu Revolution” is tantamount to nothing. Even though we know that it stemmed from the Belgians and was implemented entirely with their full support it is, and will always remain, a revolution. The Hutu revolution, no matter how it came about, changed the political and social landscape of Rwanda. All Rwandans must honestly take it into consideration in all discussions concerning Rwanda. It cannot be ignored or minimised.