THE RWANDAN PROCESS OF UNITY AND RECONCILIATION: ITS POTENTIAL FOR BUILDING SUSTAINABLE PEACE

Before colonial rule, Rwanda was characterised by unity and peace:If we start by the existing documents, many of which were written by foreigners, and if we also start by the same Rwandese culture and what is told by our ancestors, we find that there was only one Rwanda. The war between Rwandese ethnics is not mentioned anywhere before the Europeans’ arrival. When Europeans came, the seed of hatred and disagreement started being sown among Rwanda’s children (Office the President of the Republic of Rwanda [OPRR], 1999: Europeans organised their colonial rule by favouring the Tutsi tribe at the expense of the Hutus, the majority. They provided them with education and goveming posts. Belgians used to say that the Tutsi were very intelligent and were bom to govem. This insinuated that the Hutu people were ignorant and were only capable of physical work.