a) Immediate

The most immediate consequence that ensued from the genocide was the disappearance of about one million men, women and children, a majority of whom belonged to the Tutsi group.

The other major consequence was the exodus of about 2 million Hutu people following the defeat of the genocide forces. That population went into exile flanked by the political and military forces that had just committed genocide.

b) The social, economic, psychological and cultural consequences

i) The tear of the social fabric

During the period following the genocide, there exists a deep ethnic polarisation within the Rwandan society; this is not generally manifested in an open tension between the various group members, but rather by a feeling of mistrust and avoidance of one another. Relationships are superficial and remain essentially utilitarian. In the perception of each other there exists the difficulty to consider a person outside his ethnic group. At a more general level, that means that the notion of the Rwandan nation is questionable.

There exists a sentiment of fear and anxiety, especially among the genocide survivors. That community has many cases of trauma, especially among the children.

The genocide has deeply bruised the Rwandan society by creating tens of thousands of orphans, widows, and women-led families, because either men were killed, had fled the country, or were in prison. A survey carried out in November, before the return of new refugees, demonstrated that two children per family were orphans. There exist many households headed by children. In 1996 a socio-demographic study carried out by UNICEF found that 35% of families were headed by women. The genocide also affected the handicapped and the old people in particular as they lost their traditional family support.

Another consequence of the genocide was that the genocide survivors deserted the countryside for security reasons. Some survivors, whose only life and subsistence was agriculture, were forced to leave their fields and settle in towns where they cannot cater for their needs and as a result live in situations of dependence.

Rape and defilement were used as a genocide weapon. Thousands of women were forced into a sexual relationship by their torturers and many of them became pregnant whereas others were contaminated with AIDS. The rape and AIDS did not affect only the victims of genocide, i.e. the tutsi. In the situation of disorder which was prevailing, the genocide perpetrators also attacked other women. The promiscuity and the violence that reigned in the camps in Congo-Zaire also encouraged the propagation of AIDS. A study that was published this year by the AIDS control National Programme (PNLS) revealed a particularly high rate of AIDS prevalence in rural areas with 11% [of the population] infected. When we consider that 90% of Rwandans live in the rural areas, the gravity of the situation becomes clear.

ii) The destruction of the economic structure

Genocide, massacres and war did not damage the material infrastructure such as buildings, factories, roads and bridges in a significant manner. It was human structures that were most strongly targeted, particularly the public administration. At the end of 1994, less than a third of the public servants of the former administration were at their posts, and only 3% of the higher cadres. The others were either dead, or in exile if not in prison. The Rwandans from the former Diaspora could only partly fill the gap.

Banks were looted and closed, the transitional genocidaire government went to former Zaire with 24 billion francs.

According to the WFP, in agriculture, the second season crops of 1994 corresponded to 45% of 1993 crops, although 1993 was a very bad year for crops. A lot of farmlands were abandoned and the coffee harvest was reduced by 50%. 80% of the cattle and smaller animals had disappeared. Finally, the quasi-totality of factories had ground to a halt.

For the year 1994, the Gross National Product was reduced by 50% compared to the 1993 GNP, and inflation had risen to 40%. It will take many years to reach the production level of the pre-genocide years, even though those years were themselves a period of deep crisis and decline.

The struggle against the continued aggression of genocide forces has put a heavy strain on the state budget.

Finally, the Rwandan Government inherited an enormous debt that was contracted essentially by the Habyarimana Government since 1990, and was diverted to the war effort. According to the World Bank, in 1997, the total debt owed by Rwanda was equivalent to 62.5% of its GDP and debt servicing represented 33.5% of the export earnings. The international organisations such as the IMF and the World Bank could not ignore the real destination of funds allotted to countries in that period of structural adjustment programme. Taking into account the nature of the war as done by Habyarimana's government between 1990 and 1994, and of the planned and organised nature of the genocide, it is hardly possible to dissociate the financing of that war by the former government from the financing of the genocide. That is how the new Rwanda representing the "surviving people", grossly so defined by default as opposed to the perpetrators and organisers of the genocide, finds itself strangled by a debt contracted to buy arms to be used for the genocide. Taking into account that the important part of that debt is public, that a million people died and two million people had left the country and that the state had totally collapsed, a question arises on how to know to what extent the insistence of maintaining that burden on the new Rwanda will go and what part of responsibility should be assumed by international institutions that granted that debt.

iii) The judicial issue:

Among other Rwandan institutions, the justice system was one of the most affected and it collapsed completely. Genocide being a mass phenomenon at the level of its execution, the post-genocide government found itself in the obligation of very quickly putting tens of thousands of suspects in prison in order to preserve public order. It would have been very difficult to leave the "surviving people" to stay with their torturers without causing serious disorder. Moreover, the government opted for a policy of fighting against impunity that characterised by the two previous regimes that encouraged a cyclic repetition of massacres.

It was necessary to create a judiciary system ex nihilo mainly to try thousands of genocide suspects. For the sake of fairness, a law instituting different categories of responsibilities and penalties was promulgated, which provides for a confession process that could lighten the penalties. The problem of overcrowding of prisons continues to create a lot of health and hygiene problems in many detention centres. The extremely high number of prisoners, about 130,000 today, makes the prosecution proceedings of genocide suspects so slow that there is very urgent need for change.

iv) Rwanda's loss of trust in the international community

The Arusha Peace process was sponsored by what was known as the "Triumvirate" made up of the United States of America, Belgium and France. Afterwards, the United Nations' Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR) was created and had thousands of troops, with the mission of ensuring a peaceful transition. Three weeks after the beginning of the genocide and massacres, the U.N Security Council decided to withdraw the UNAMIR troops leaving behind a symbolic number of men. This was real treason against the genocide victims and it is perceived as such in Rwanda.

In early July 1994, when the Rwandan Patriotic Front forces had just defeated the genocide forces, the latter decided to seek refuge in Zaire and Tanzania, dragging with them part of the population.

Turning their back to Rwanda and the victims of genocide, an enormous humanitarian and media machine moved to the refugee camps, so that for international mass media and national opinions under their influence, the crisis that deserved compassion and mobilisation was that of refugee camps in Zaire and Tanzania, almost ignoring the genocide that had just been perpetrated in Rwanda. It was only slowly at first that the international humanitarian aid was sent to Rwanda.

In the rush to the refugee camps, a few organisations and journalists raised the question on how two million Rwandans were there, who encouraged them to flee en masse and why. The humanitarian organisations in the refugee camps collaborated with political structures responsible for the genocide. They were fair-minded and wanted to reach the rural populations in exile. Those organisations were less concerned with the massive diversion of the aid distributed in the camps; soldiers and militiamen who had just perpetrated genocide in Rwanda diverted the aid.

Finally, while the Government of Rwanda was summoned to bring back its refugees, the humanitarian organisations went on using the political structures as their intermediaries, which, through intimidation and propaganda of rumours, maintained the refugees as hostages. In so doing, the international organisations backed the soldiers and militiamen who were busy rearming and reorganising themselves.

a) By the Government

b) Through the civil society

c) By the international community

a) For the Government

b) For the civil society

The associations of genocide and massacres survivors, the bar, professional associations, national development NGOs, and local communities should contribute in:

These different problems should explore the historical dimensions, the present situation and future perspectives. Their study should have clear objectives of public participation with regular publications of results accompanied by discussions including strong media participation; public conferences at the level of the prefectures and publication of reference manuals.

This work should be used in the preparation of school manuals and in the reorientation of primary and secondary teachers especially on syllabi of history and civics. Finally, university and secondary school curricula should include studies on genocide.

c) For the international community:

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