I have just completed thirty days of listening and hearing stories of people from all walks of life in the Great Lakes Region. I spent three weeks in DRC, one week in Burundi and some hours in Rwanda. I have read quite a lot about the historical relations between Hutu and Tutsi people including the tragedies of 1972 and 1994 in Burundi and Rwanda respectively. Until this visit to the region my contacts had been with the elite from the region and around the world familiar with the history of the region. But I had never had the opportunity to listen and hear the views of the ordinary people. During these thirty days I made every effort to listen in formal and informal meetings (I learnt a lot more in informal meetings with individuals), ask questions, seek clarifications, probe as much as possible and repeat the same questions with different groups in order to get a consensus, noting the differences as well. Like a good medical doctor, I wanted to get to the root cause of the problem.
By and large, the relations between the two groups have been antagonistic, with the Tutsi determined to dominate and exploit the Hutu. As nomadic people perpetually fighting over pasture and water for their livestock, the Tutsi had an advantage over settled and relatively peaceful farming Hutu communities when the two groups met in the Great Lakes region. Arguments that inter-ethnic relations were symbiotic before the arrival of Europeans did not get much support.
There was consensus that relations between the two groups deteriorated considerably with the arrival of Europeans first the aristocratic Germans and later the aristocratic Belgians who brought with them racial stereotypes. Hutu people were suppressed and even lost the few benefits like land chiefs positions they enjoyed under the Tutsi hegemony. The whites even conquered the Baking in north Rwanda and forced them into the colonial regime in which the Tutsi played a key administrative and oppressive role under the system of indirect rule.
There was general agreement that denying Hutu education, access to land and ownership of cattle which is a source of capital accumulation was the worst thing that could happen to any group of people. Psychologically Hutu people were severely wounded. They were described as ugly, short, unintelligent and people without guts to fight for their rights. They believe Tutsi and white people still treat them the same way except this time it is done in subtle ways. In other words the inferiority of Hutu has been institutionalized – a Hutu is inferior whether he/she is tall, handsome or beautiful, educated and with vast experience or not. According to the stories I heard, a Hutu is seen by Tutsi and white people as incapable of assuming a leadership role because God did not create him/her for that role on earth.
Hutu believe that the world treats them as barbaric people who should be hunted down and punished for their barbaric behavior. They believe the 1972 genocide in Burundi committed by Tutsi against the Hutu people was ignored for this reason. They added that while many Hutu people died in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the overall impression particularly in Rwanda is that only the Tutsi were murdered by barbaric Hutu.
Discussions about Hutu massacres inside Rwanda and DRC since 1990, when the Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) launched guerrilla attacks on Rwanda, were very emotional. Stories were told about massacres in North West Rwanda, the Kibeho IDP camp and those in DRC that the international community chose to cover up. They recalled that the hands of Tutsi hard-liners in Rwanda were strengthened when the Garsony report which had implicated Tutsi in the genocide was suppressed in the corridors of power. They believe that the combined DRC/Rwanda troop effort to hunt down and eliminate Hutu rebels in DRC was a pretext to murder Hutu people – whether Rwandese or Congolese. Hutus further believe that the overall goal is to reduce their numbers. And that is why the Rwanda government has introduced birth control to three children per couple although I learnt that the law was not promulgated.
I learned that attempts by Hutu to enter into a coalition government with Tutsi have been rejected by the latter because they cannot negotiate with genocidaires. According to the stories I heard, Tutsi treat every Hutu as a genocidaire whether they participated in genocide or not or were even born after 1994.
Many of the Hutu that returned to Rwanda have run into all sorts of difficulties. They have lost their land and property and Tutsi who have occupied their land accuse the Hutu of committing genocide for which they should be locked away or have no right to claim anything. Consequently Hutu have been pushed back into subsistence economy where chances of progress are virtually non-existent.
Hutu believe that Tutsi have become the darling of the west, the United Nations and Commonwealth that will do everything to cover up the atrocities that Tutsi have committed against Hutu. To save their present and future generations, Hutu are telling their children to arm themselves and force their way into Rwanda just as the Tutsi did in 1994 no matter how long it takes. The Tutsi are also determined, from what I heard, not to let that happen, making the Great Lakes region a very dangerous place especially where arms are readily available.
These are a sample of the stories I heard which I believe many others have heard. I wrote this article as a concerned individual who believes that everyone has a place on this earth and the international community must ensure that that happens including for the Hutu people.