SUMMARY

The exact reasons for the Interahamwe, ex-FAR’s one-sided violence during the exodus, mainly into the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)), are unknown. No stated reasons were given and several recorded acts of one-sided violence were completely denied by the group’s leadership to even have taken place.

From the reporting of the events at least one pattern is visible though; the killing of refugees who did not wish to follow the orders of the group. Several analysts have pointed out that the ousted regime and military exerted a strong influence over the streams of refugees that left Rwanda, wishing to empty the land completely so as to inflict harm on the new RPF government and render Rwanda ungovernable. Control over where the refugees went was therefore crucial and several Hutu civilians appear to have been killed for not wanting to follow the lead of the leadership; either when moving towards the camps or when wishing to return to Rwanda.

The Interahamwe, ex-FAR , however, also executed attacks from DRC into Rwanda, then targeting mainly Tutsi peasants that had not joined the exodus from Rwanda. The targeting of Tutsi peasants was most likely a continuance of the Interahamwe, ex-FAR’s policy of exterminating their perceived Tutsi enemies.

The Interahamwe, ex-FAR coalition first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1994, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in September that year when members of the groups massacred over 30 civilians in a refugee camp in Kattale.