“It would be difficult to assume that the Rwandan genocide of 1994 was not predicted and far less difficult to think it could have been prevented. The genocide represents a high point of a diabolic pseudo-Fascist plan by the majority Hutu to establish a mono-ethnic Hutu oligarchy at the expense of the minority Tutsi. This plan began to unfold during the Rwandan revolution of 1959, which provided the Hutu with an opportunity to interrogate the premise of inequality as viewed by colonial anthropologists and administrators. This policy brief examines inter-ethnic relations in colonial and post-colonial Rwanda. It posits that differences in ethnic relations in the country are traceable to politicised ethnicity and concludes by arguing that the proliferation of small arms in the region would make sustainable peace untenable.”
