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.