Word: hutu
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That response may seem extraordinary for a man whose two daughters were slaughtered, and it is far from certain that his attitude is shared by all Tutsi. Many made no effort to conceal their contempt for the returning Hutu. Many more, however, seemed to greet the returnees with Ruziga's air of orderly acceptance and restraint--an outlook that may stem from Rwanda's unique social structure. Unlike most African nations, which were cobbled together by colonial mapmakers, Rwanda was a tightly organized kingdom long before the Europeans arrived. A Tutsi god-king headed an elaborate system of civil administration...
...torrent of refugees flowed past the little Rwandan village of Nkuli last week, Jonasi Ruziga stood in silence and stared. The numbers were overwhelming--more than half a million Hutu, alternately trudging through the pouring rain and panting under the tropical sun. Ruziga, a Tutsi trader, had an equally overwhelming reason for monitoring their passage. He was looking for the murderers of his children. "Yesterday evening I saw two of them," he said. "They passed here along this road. Then this morning I saw one more walking by. Just like that...
...epic influx of refugees was made up mostly of Hutu civilians who fled Rwanda in 1994, fearing reprisal for the genocide deaths of 800,000 Tutsi at the hands of the Hutu-led government. For two years the Hutu had huddled in Zairean camps, prevented from returning by Hutu militia who controlled them through savage intimidation. When Tutsi-led Zairean rebels routed the Hutu tormentors two weeks ago, the refugees fled home. In their midst, however, were thousands--perhaps even tens of thousands--of the extremists who had organized and taken part in the butchery of 1994. Some of those...
...obvious confusion about what to do is a reminder that the suffering of the refugees in Zaire, like so many apparently humanitarian crises, was essentially political. They were at risk because they were held as political pawns by their Hutu captors. The U.S. and the U.N. chose to respond to human suffering and not to the continuing war between Hutu and Tutsi forces--which holds no interest for Westerners. If the humanitarian mission had gone ahead without breaking the Hutu grip and sending the refugees home, another wave of agony was almost certain to convulse them in a few weeks...
Mobutu's corrupt and incompetent army put up little resistance when the Tutsi rebels seized eastern portions of the nation. But when they began forcing the 1.2 million Hutu refugees from camps inside Zaire, Mobutu was handed a crisis tailor-made to his needs. An international humanitarian effort could enhance his global stature and buy him some time, assuming his health remains stable. But it would not address the pent-up flood of problems that are overwhelming his vainglorious leadership...