Rwandan Patriotic Front - Citizenship and Indigeneity

Citizenship and Indigeneity

Some critics of the RPF have argued that the Tutsi diaspora always intended to form an "army within an army" that would be used to invade Rwanda. This argument states that the Tutsi rebels of RANU had joined with Museveni as part of a long-planned conspiracy. However, Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani argues that the 1990 invasion was the result of a debate among the refugees in response to events, the most important of which was the rising nativist urge in Uganda. Criticism that the NRA was overly dominated by refugees resulted in Major-General Fred Rwigyema being transferred from the powerful position of deputy commander of the army to the more ceremonial position of deputy minister of defense in 1987. The next year he was removed from even this position.

Nevertheless, in a 1988 conference of the political diaspora in Washington, D.C., most of the exiled community agreed that the Tutsi should become naturalized citizens of the countries in which they resided, while those who wished to return could do so through a process of peaceful negotiation with the Rwandan government.

The final change came with a 1990 debate on ranches in Mawogola County, Masaka District and the issues it raised about whether citizenship should emanate from resident or indigenous status. The ranches had been gradually taken over by 200,000 pastoralists, about 80,000 of whom were said to be refugees. The owners of the land had raised the rent for using the land and for access to water, eventually resulting in a squatter uprising and outbreak of violence. A political firestorm erupted when the government sided with the squatters, as ranchers and others accused the president of favoring the nonindigenous Banyarwanda over the 'real Ugandans'. The opposition managed to put the topic of indigeneity and its relationship to citizenship and legal rights at the center of the political debate. Thus backed into a corner and in need of maintaining his political coalition, the president backed down, agreeing that the Banyarwanda were foreigners with no rights as citizens. Within the army, refugee officers were systematically removed, with the replacement of refugees in favor of individuals with claims to indigeneity eventually extending into other government agencies.

A senior RPF commander, speaking in 1995, summed up the effect this experience had on him:

"You stake your life and at the end of the day you recognize that no amount of contribution can make you what you are not. You can't buy it, even with blood."