Rwanda, ten years on: From genocide to dictatorship

Ten years after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda is experiencing not democracy and reconciliation but dictatorship and exclusion. Although the government led by the Rwanda Patriotic Front has achieved rapid institutional reconstruction and relatively good bureaucratic governance, it has also concentrated power and wealth in the hands of a very small minority, practised ethnic discrimination, eliminated every form of dissent, destroyed civil society, conducted a fundamentally flawed 'democratization' process, and massively violated human rights at home and abroad. The Rwandan army twice invaded neighbouring Zaire-Congo, where its initial security concerns gave way to a logic of plunder. It has caused protracted regional instability and derailed the transition process in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Rwandan government has succeeded in avoiding condemnation by astutely exploiting the 'genocide credit' and by skilful information management. The international community has been complicit in the rebuilding of a dictatorship under the guise of democracy. It assumes a grave responsibility in allowing structural violence to develop once again, just as before 1994. In years to come, this may well lead to renewed acute violence.