The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) was built on an ideology that cast the Tutsi as enemies, according to four of its former senior officers, who say they were taught to hate them long before the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group.
uncertain
they → build → group
“In our history and ideology, Tutsis are referred to as ‘snakes’,” said Anastase Munyaneza, a former FDLR major general.
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Munyaneza → refer → snakes
“The analogy is that if a snake bites you, it injects poison and you die.
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you → bite → poison
Therefore, it is better to kill the snake before it bites you.
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it → kill → you
The former officers say such ideas were reinforced through Rwanda’s political and military institutions before the 1994 genocide and persisted among those who fled into neighbouring Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took control of Rwanda in July 1994.
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Front → say → July
More than three decades later, the FDLR remains a source of regional security concerns, with its presence in eastern DRC a major point of contention between Kigali and Kinshasa.
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presence → remain → Kigali
Al Jazeera met the four former officers, who defected from the FDLR, returned to Rwanda and underwent rehabilitation at the Mutobo demobilisation centre.
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who → meet → centre
Their accounts offer an insight into the origins of the group’s ideology, its development in exile, and the networks that have helped it survive.
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it → offer → exile
Where did the ideology come from?
The roots of the anti-Tutsi ideology described by the former officers stretch back decades, to a period when ethnic identities became increasingly politicised and institutionalised in Rwanda.
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identities → come → Rwanda
In November 1959, a Hutu uprising helped bring about the overthrow of Rwanda’s monarchy.
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uprising → bring → monarchy
The period was also marked by violent attacks on Tutsis, the killing of hundreds and the forced exile of thousands to neighbouring countries.
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period → mark → countries
Before colonial rule, Hutu and Tutsi identities were shaped by social, political and economic relationships.
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identities → shape → relationships
Under Belgian rule, these distinctions were increasingly formalised.
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distinctions → formalise → rule
In the early 1930s, the colonial administration introduced compulsory identity cards classifying Rwandans as Hutu, Tutsi or Twa, reinforcing distinctions that became increasingly rigid.
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that → introduce → distinctions
By independence in 1962, about 120,000 people, mostly Tutsi, had fled the country.
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people → flee → country
Exiles in Tanzania and Zaire who sought to return staged attacks between 1962 and 1967.
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who → seek → 1962
According to the United Nations, each incident was followed by retaliatory killings of large numbers of Tutsi civilians in Rwanda, prompting further waves of refugees.
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incident → accord → refugees
President Juvenal Habyarimana argued that population pressures and limited economic opportunities made it difficult to accommodate large numbers of returning Tutsi refugees.
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it → argue → refugees
In 1988, exiles in Uganda founded the RPF to secure their repatriation, according to the UN.
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exiles → found → UN
Lieutenant Colonel Idrissa Bizimana said the exiles who launched attacks against Rwanda were branded “Inyenzi”, meaning cockroaches.
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who → say → cockroaches
“When the RPF attacked in 1990, we were told that the same Inyenzi had attacked the country.
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Inyenzi → attack → country
We grew up being taught to hate them,” he said.
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he → grow → them
Bizimana said they were also taught at school that the Tutsis had come from Ethiopia and had “ruled through hatred for 400 years”.
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Tutsis → say → years
The former officers say these narratives were carried into the military, where they shaped how soldiers were taught to view Tutsis and their place in Rwandan society.
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soldiers → say → society
Major-General Munyaneza said the Tutsis were rarely found in the army because they were not welcome.
“In the army, we were taught that the Tutsi were our enemy,” he said.
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he → say → army
He recalled that soldiers had to seek permission to marry and present their fiancees for approval.
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soldiers → recall → approval
If a woman was Tutsi, permission would be denied.
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permission → deny → ?
The justification, he said, was that a soldier’s in-laws might visit their daughter in the barracks, potentially gaining access to sensitive military information and “passing it on to the enemy”.
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laws → say → enemy
What did the army do in 1994?
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army → do → 1994
The former officers say the ideology they encountered in the military was put into practice during the genocide against the Tutsis in 1994.
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they → say → 1994
Munyaneza said soldiers trained members of the Interahamwe militia, which included men who had retired from, deserted, or been dismissed from the army.
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who → say → army
The Interahamwe, the youth militia of the then-ruling National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND) party, participated in the massacres alongside the Presidential Guard and the army, according to the UN tribunal for Rwanda.
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Interahamwe → rule → Rwanda
Bizimana said members of his battalion hated the Tutsis, and took part in the killings.
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members → say → killings
“During the genocide against the Tutsi, the battalion was actively involved in the genocide in the area where it was deployed,” he said.
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he → involve → area
The killings began after a plane carrying Rwandan President Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994.
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plane → begin → April
The incident triggered approximately 100 days of systematic mass killings, according to the UN.
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incident → trigger → UN
Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) broadcast messages inciting violence against the Tutsis, including calls to eliminate those described as “cockroaches”.
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Collines → broadcast → cockroaches
How did the FDLR take root in Congo?
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FDLR → take → Congo
When the RPF took control of Rwanda in July 1994, ending the genocide, former government officials, soldiers and militiamen who had participated in the killings fled into Zaire.
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who → take → Zaire
In eastern Zaire, the UN refugee agency reported that former members of the Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) took effective control of refugee camps, particularly around Goma.
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members → report → Goma
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
