| The State Department web site below is a permanent electronic archive of information released prior to January 20, 2001. Please see www.state.gov for material released since President George W. Bush took office on that date. This site is not updated so external links may no longer function. Contact us with any questions about finding information. NOTE: External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein. |
Title: Rwanda Human Rights Practices, 1995
Author: U.S. Department of State
Date: March 1996
RWANDA
The broad-based Government of National Unity of Rwanda was reorganized
in August, with the replacement of the Prime Minister and the Ministers
of Justice, Interior, and Transport and Communication. The largely
Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which came to power in 1994, is the
principal Rwandan political force. President Pasteur Bizimungu, an
ethnic Hutu, and Vice President and Minister of Defense, Paul Kagame, an
ethnic Tutsi, both belong to the RPF. The reorganized Government
follows the ethnic and party lines of its predecessor. The mainly Hutu
Republican Democratic Movement (MDR) retains the post of Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Pierre Rwigema, a Hutu, runs the Government on a daily
basis and is responsible for relations with the National Assembly.
There is no functioning judicial system.
The national constitution known as the Fundamental Law is comprised of
four texts: the Constitution of 1991; the Arusha Accords of 1993; the
RPF Declaration of August 1994; and the Interparty Accords of 1994.
These texts apply in a complicated legal precedence based loosely on
their dates of execution.
The 1993 Arusha Accord, signed by both the RPF and the former government
headed by then President Juvenal Habyarimana, was intended to promote
powersharing, ensure integration of the rebel and government armies,
ease ethnic tensions, and lead to democratic elections. This effort
ended in April 1994 with the crash of President Habyarimana's aircraft.
Hutu extremists massacred hundreds of thousands of people, mostly
Tutsis, but also murdered Hutu members of the political opposition.
Both the military and civilian militias carried out the massacres.
The RPF responded with a military offensive that routed the Hutu army in
July 1994, causing the wholesale flight of Hutu
civilians who feared reprisals. Two-thirds of the population was
uprooted. More than 1.7 million people fled to bordering countries;
another 2 million were displaced within Rwanda. Most of the internally
displaced have now returned to their homes; nearly 2 million refugees
remain outside Rwanda. Members of the former Hutu extremist Government
and the former army (FAR), based just across the border in Zaire,
threatened to rearm and renew the civil war; cross-border incidents
continued to exacerbate the troubled security situation.
Vice President Kagame is responsible for security and military defense;
the Minister of Interior is responsible for civilian security matters.
The Ministry of Defense is responsible for overall internal security.
Its security apparatus consists of the Government Patriotic Army (RPA)
and the Gendarmerie, largely made up of RPA soldiers. These units
committed human rights abuses. Unarmed civilian police with limited
arrest powers work in some rural communues. They report to the
Borgemestre, or local mayor.
On December 8 the presence of the U.N. Military Operation in Rwanda
(UNAMIR) was renewed for a final 3-month period. Its mandate is limited
to protection of the International War Crimes Tribunal (see Section 4).
The economic situation remains difficult. The interethnic violence from
1990 onward and especially in 1994 resulted in the neglect and massive
destruction of much of the country's economic infrastructure, including
utilities, roads and hospitals. Most Rwandans are subsistence farmers,
and food production even before the war had barely kept pace with
population growth. Dislocation led to disruption of the crop cycle and
widespread food shortages.
Although the security situation is improving, human rights abuses
continue. These include revenge killings by the military and other
killings which appear to be political in nature. In April the military
fired into a panicked crowd at the internally displaced persons camp at
Kibeho, killing hundreds. The Government convened an international
commission to investigate the tragedy. Prison conditions are
horrendous, the judicial system does not function, and due process
rights are not assured. Authorities hold more than 63,000 prisoners in
overcrowded jails. Most are accused of participating in the genocide,
but the justice system has yet to conduct a trial. Citizens do not have
the right to change their government. Dissatisfaction with movement
toward reconciliation, repatriation, and failure of efforts to restart
the justice system and relieve prison overcrowding led to a cabinet
shuffle in August. Discrimination and violence against women are
problems.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
From:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
There were credible allegations that the military committed killings
both for political reasons and in revenge for earlier violence.
In March near Bugarama an RPA unit summarily executed 17 civilians after
being ambushed by suspected Hutu militiamen. Military authorities
arrested all the members of the RPA unit, who now await court martial.
Suspicious deaths include the killings in August of two former sub-
prefects in Gitarama and Gikongoro. Both had been members of the
largely Hutu MDR. Authorities have not established a motive in either
case, nor arrested anyone. When a judge was killed in Butare in
September, the security forces quickly arrested one civilian and two
soldiers, including the chief of security for that sector.
In those killings where military forces have been implicated, the RPA
has acted swiftly. More than 700 RPA soldiers are awaiting court
martial on various charges. The case of 14 soldiers accused of the
killing Hutus in May had not reached final disposition by year's end.
On September 11, members of the RPA killed more than 110 civilians in
Kanama after an ambush of an RPA vehicle. The Government admitted that
this was the result of excessive force, and has investigated, but has
produced no results by year's end.
In April 13 prisoners died from asphyxiation in an overcrowded holding
cell in a Kigali gendarme station. The Government condemned the
"criminal negligence" of the officer in charge and placed him under
arrest.
b. Disappearance
There were no credible reports of politically motivated disappearances.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Degrading, or Inhuman Treatment or
Punishment
Torture is contrary to the Constitution and the Arusha Peace Accord, and
there were no reports of systematic torture. Various observers have
accused local authorities of using excessive force in arrests and
interrogation, but there have been no documented cases and the
Government does not condone this practice.
With serious problems of overcrowding and sanitation, prison conditions
are horrendous. Authorities estimate that there are approximately
63,000 persons held in some 250 prisons and jails having a design
capacity of 7,000. At Gitarama, the worst of the large prisons,
prisoners are housed as tightly as four per square meter. In April, 13
prisoners suffocated in an overcrowded Kigali gendarme holding cell (see
Section 1.a.). The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
human rights organizations, diplomats, and journalists have regular
access to the prisons. The ICRC feeds some 42,000 detainees in the 14
main prisons, and also provides additional expertise and logistical and
material support to improve conditions for detainees. New detention
centers are being built.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, and Exile
Rwanda's justice system is not functioning. Never a model of free and
fair justice, the system essentially collapsed during the genocide of
1994, when the overwhelming majority of jurists either fled the country
or were killed. Since that time there have been no genocide trials, and
only a few trials of petty criminals. It is generally believed that
false accusations of involvement in acts of genocide have resulted in
the arrests of thousands of innocent people. The Government does not
have the capacity to investigate the vast majority of these cases.
Under these circumstances any arrest can be seen to be arbitrary. The
Government, on the other hand, sees its duty to be to bring to justice
those accused of the 1994 genocide. It often makes arrests based on
oral complaints, and the necessary legal paperwork to proceed to trial
is missing in many cases. 63,000 prisoners now await trial.
Exile is not practiced. Indeed, the RPF's primary goal is to end the
forced exile of Rwanda's Tutsi population. This was the leading cause
of the RPF invasion from Uganda in 1990.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The courts are not functioning. The Government, with the help of the
international community, is attempting to rebuild the judiciary and
appoint lower court officials. By year's end, no trials were being
held, and the Supreme Court was not in place. The law provides for
public trials with the right to an attorney.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
The Fundamental Law prohibits such practices. Authorities generally
respect these prohibitions, and prosecute violations.
g. Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian Law in
Internal Conflicts
The most serious violence occurred in April, in connection with the
Government's effort to close the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp
at Kibeho. Most of the 120,000 residents were Hutu. Armed camp
internees and the RPA engaged in brutally violent clashes over a 4-day
period, resulting in deaths estimated at 338 by the Government and as
high as 8,000 by some nongovernmental organizations (NGO's).
Apparently encouraged by some of the humanitarian workers inside the
camp not to leave, hundreds of residents fled to a UNAMIR position at
the camp's center, creating a humanitarian crisis. Residents threw
stones at the military forces, which responded with gunfire that killed
some 10 people the first day. By the third day of the operation there
were reliable reports of gunfire directed at the military from inside
the camp; there were several stampedes of panicked camp residents
apparently precipitated by armed Hutu extremist elements in the
camp. On April 22, in the dusk and rain, a mass of about 5,000 camp
residents stampeded in an attempt to escape an RPA cordon designed to
direct the residents toward registration points for their onward
journeys. RPA sections were not able readily to communicate with one
another; soldiers fired into the crowd and killed many people. Many of
the deaths resulted from machete blows, suggesting that camp residents
were under attack from extremist elements within the camp. The vast
majority of camp residents departed Kibeho for their home communes
immediately after this violence, although an estimated several hundred
militant holdouts retreated into a hospital and refused to leave for
about a week. Some of these holdouts were killed by armed elements
among them, apparently to discourage others from leaving. After
extensive negotiations involving the U.N., the ICRC, and NGO's, these
holdouts too eventually left the camp.
The Government responded to criticism of its actions at Kibeho by
forming an international commission of inquiry. Belgium, France, Great
Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the Organization
for African Unity (OAU), and the United Nations each nominated an
independent expert to serve on the commission along with a
representative of the Government. After 2 weeks of investigation which
included visits to the site and interviews with witnesses and officials,
the Commission concluded that the tragedy at Kibeho "neither resulted
from a planned action by Rwandan authorities to kill a certain group of
people, nor was it an accident that could not have been prevented." The
Commission went on to voice its regret "that U.N. agencies and NGO's
were not able to contribute more efficiently to the speedy evacuation of
IDP's from the camp." The Commission further concluded that "unarmed
IDP's were subjected to arbitrary deprivation and serious bodily harm"
committed by both the RPA and by armed elements among the IDP's
themselves. The Commission did not address the death toll.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and the Press
The Fundamental Law provides for freedom of the press, and the
Government generally respects this right in practice. There are several
privately owned newspapers, the government-owned Radio Rwanda, and the
U.N.-operated Radio UNAMIR.
The university has reopened, and academic freedom is respected.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The Fundamental Law provides for freedom of peaceful assembly, but
authorities may require advance notice for outdoor rallies,
demonstrations, and meetings. Citizens are legally free to join and
form political parties, though the National
Revolutionary Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), and the
Coalition for Defense of the Republic (CDR), implicated in planning and
executing the 1994 genocide, have been banned by law. Hutus, however,
demonstrated against foreign support of what they termed the "illegal
regime" in Kigali.
c. Freedom of Religion
The 1991 Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the
Government respects this right in practice.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel,
Emigration, and Repatriation
The Constitution provides for these rights, and the Government respects
them in practice. In August Zaire expelled 13,000 refugees to Rwanda,
who were received without incident. The Government, aided by
international humanitarian organizations, received and processed these
refugees, and returned them to their homes, largely without incident.
Nearly all the 2 million Rwandans who fled in July 1994 remain outside
the country. Voluntary repatriation has been slow. Refugees from the
1959 massacres continue to return in increasing numbers. Their arrival
put strains on the housing stock in some areas. The law provides that
owners may not reclaim a house abandoned more than 10 years earlier if
it is now occupied.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
Change Their Government
Citizens did not have the right to change their government through
democratic means. The 1992 powersharing agreement crafted in the Arusha
negotiations and ratified by the 1993 Peace Accord was not fully
implemented prior to Habyarimana's death in April 1994, but remains the
basis of planning. Despite the events of 1994, the RPF brought
representatives of four other opposition parties into the Government
after the RPF military victory, but none of these officials were
elected. An appointed multiparty National Assembly is now functioning,
with nine political parties represented, including the RPF.
There are no legal restrictions on the participation of women in
political life, but women remain poorly represented in politics and
government, including both the Cabinet and the National Assembly. The
Batwa are also underrepresented.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
A wide variety of local and international human rights groups operate
without government restriction, investigating and publishing their
findings on human rights violations. They include the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees and Journalists sans Frontieres. Government
officials are generally cooperative and responsive to their views.
On December 13 the International War Crimes Tribunal announced eight
secret indictments of genocide suspects. The Government criticized the
Tribunal for indicting only eight persons in the genocide of what it
said was more than 1 million victims. It also expressed dismay that the
names of those indicted were kept secret.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Disability,
Language, or Social Status
The Constitution provides that all citizens are equal before the law,
without discrimination on the basis of race, color, origin, ethnicity,
clan, sex, opinion, religion, or social standing. The Government
provides only limited enforcement of these provisions, however.
Women
Violence against women continues. Wife beating and domestic violence
are normally handled within the context of the extended family and
rarely come before the courts.
Despite constitutional provisions, women continue to face serious
discrimination. Women traditionally perform most of the subsistence
farming and play a limited role in the modern sector. They have only
limited opportunities for education, employment, and promotion. The
Family Code of 1992 has generally improved the legal position of women
in matters relating to marriage, divorce, and child custody, but still
does not meet Rwanda's international and constitutional commitments to
gender equality. For example, it formally designates men as heads of
households. Also, the absence of succession laws limits a woman's right
to property, thus jeopardizing her status and ability to provide for her
family should she survive her husband.
Children
The Government is attempting to provide an education and to guarantee
health care to every child.
More than 50,000 children separated from their parents during the 1994
genocide and national upheaval remain in the care of strangers or
international organizations. Although the Penal Code prohibits the
imprisonment of children with adults, the Government indicates hundreds
of children are in fact incarcerated with adults throughout the prison
system. A new detention center for children which was funded by the
U.N. Children's Fund opened in October; it houses about 150 boys.
People with Disabilities
Although there are no laws restricting people with disabilities from
employment, education, or other state services, in practice few disabled
persons have access to education or employment. There are no laws or
provisions that mandate access to public facilities.
Indigenous People
Less than 1 percent of the population comes from the Batwa ethnic group.
These indigenous people, survivors of the Pygmy (Twa) tribes of the
mountainous forest areas bordering Zaire, exist on the margins of
society and continue to be treated as second-class citizens by both
Hutus and Tutsis. The Batwa have not been able to protect their
interests, which center on access to land and housing. Few Batwa have
gained access to the educational system, resulting in minimal
representation in government institutions.
There is no reliable information on specific human rights abuses
perpetrated against the Batwa population during the 1994 upheaval. A
group of several hundred Batwa refugees were discovered in 1994 living
in a forested area outside Goma, Zaire, deeply traumatized by the events
they had witnessed. They did not clarify, however, that they or other
Batwa had been caught up in either side of the massacre.
National/Ethnic/Racial Minorities
Before April 1994, an estimated 85 percent of citizens were Hutu, 14
percent were Tutsi, and 1 percent Batwa. The subsequent mass killings
and migrations probably affected the ethnic composition of the
population, but the extent of the changes is unknown.
The Government has called for ethnic reconciliation and committed itself
to abolishing policies of the former government that had created and
deepened ethnic cleavages. It promised to eliminate references to
ethnic origin from the national identity card, a provision of the 1993
Peace Accord. The Government has not statutorily addressed the issue of
ethnic quotas in education, training, and government employment. It has
partially integrated more than 2,000 former government soldiers into RPF
forces, although not by the formula prescribed by the 1993 Arusha
Accord. Tutsi clergy and businessman, who were well represented in
these sectors of society, were killed in great numbers in the genocide.
Following the 1994 victory by the RPF, Tutsis returning from exile took
over many of the business and professional positions formerly held by
Hutus and Tutsis.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
In practice Rwanda does not currently have a functioning labor movement.
Although preconflict labor law technically remains in effect, the
Government is unable to implement its provisions.
The Constitution provides for the right to create professional
associations and labor unions. Union membership is voluntary and open
to all salaried workers, including public sector employees. There are
no restrictions on the right of association, but all unions must
register with the Ministry of Justice for official recognition. There
are no known cases in which the Government has denied such recognition.
Unions are prohibited by law from having political affiliations, but in
practice this is not always respected.
Organized labor represents only a small part of the work force. Over 90
percent are engaged in small-scale subsistence farming. About 7 percent
work in the modern (wage) sector, including both public and private
industrial production, and about 75 percent of those active in the
modern sector are members of labor unions.
Before 1991 the Central Union of Rwandan Workers (CESTRAR) was the only
authorized trade union organization. With the political reforms
introduced in the Constitution, CESTRAR officially became independent of
the Government and the MRND.
The Constitution provides for the right to strike, except for public
service workers. A union's executive committee must approve a strike,
and a union must first try to resolve its differences with management
according to steps prescribed by the Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs. The Government never enforced laws prohibiting retribution
against strikers. Labor organizations may affiliate with international
labor bodies. CESTRAR is affiliated with the Organization of African
Trade Union Unity and the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The Constitution provides for collective bargaining, although only
CESTRAR had an established collective bargaining agreement with the
Government. In practice, since most workers are in the public sector,
the Government is intimately involved in the process (see Section 6.e.).
The law prohibits antiunion discrimination, and it has not occurred in
practice. There are no formal mechanisms to resolve complaints
involving discrimination against unions.
There are no export processing zones.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The law prohibits forced labor, and there are no reports that it occurs
in practice.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
Except in subsistence agriculture, the law prohibits children under age
18 from working without their parents' or guardians' authorization, and
they generally may not work at night. The minimum age for full
employment is 18 years, and for apprenticeships 14 years, providing the
child has completed primary school. The Ministry of Labor has not
enforced child labor laws effectively.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The Ministry of Labor sets minimum wages in the small modern sector.
The minimum wage is $1.08 (310 Rwandan francs) for an 8-hour workday.
The Government, the main employer, effectively sets most other wage
rates as well. The minimum wage was inadequate to provide a decent
standard of living for urban families. Often families supplement their
incomes by work in small business or subsistence agriculture. In
practice, however, workers will work for less than the minimum wage.
Officially, government offices have a 40-hour workweek. Negotiations in
1993 between the unions, government, and management were held to reduce
the workweek from 45 to 40 hours in the private sector as well, but by
the end of 1995 no such reduction had occurred. Hours of work and
occupational health and safety standards in the modern wage sector are
controlled by law, but labor inspectors from the Ministry of Labor
enforce them only loosely. Workers do not have the right to remove
themselves from dangerous work situations without jeopardizing their
jobs.
(###)
[end of document]
Return
to 1995 Human Rights Practices report home page.
Return to DOSFAN
home page.
This is an official U.S. Government source
for information on the WWW. Inclusion of non-U.S. Government links
does not imply endorsement of contents.