Most writers on the 1994 Rwandan genocide note the introduction
of group classification on ID cards by the Belgian colonial government in
1933, an action most significant because it introduced a rigid racial concept
of group identity where it had not previously existed. Of great significance
also, however, was the repeated decision by the post-colonial Rwandan authorities
to retain the group classifications on ID cards.
Prior to independence, nine Hutu leaders declared their intention
to retain such classifications in the Hutu manifesto of March 24, 1957,
writing: "we are opposed vigorously, at least for the moment, to the suppression
in the official or private identity papers of the mentions 'muhutu', 'mututsi',
'mutwa'. Their suppression would create a risk of preventing the statistical
law from establishing the reality of facts." By "statistical" the authors
meant dominance by the Hutu majority population group.One of the nine authors
of the 1957 Manifesto, Gregoire Kayibanda, became the first president
of Rwanda in 1961 and under his leadership the Rwandan carte d'identité
continued to display the "ubwoko / ethnie" group affiliation of the card bearer.
(3)
His successor, after a 1973 coup, President Juvenal Habyarimana
also retained the cards until on November 13, 1990. On that day, at the same
time he announced a new multi-party system, President Habyarimana announced
his intention, which he never acted upon, to abolish ethnic identity cards.
He was later encouraged in April 1991 to follow through with this statement
by United States Ambassador Robert A. Flaten, but according to Philip Gourevitch
the French ambassador opposed the plan. Alison De Forges reports that in July
1991 independent consultants encouraged France and other governments giving
aid to Rwanda to require the removal of group affiliation from ID Cards be
taken as a prerequisite for assistance, but those governments failed to take
that advice. (4)
In massacres northwestern Rwanda in early 1993, ethnic categories
on ID cards facilitated the identification of victims. When this event occurred
negotiations were in progress for power-sharing under a Transitional Government.
Among the provisions in the August 4, 1993 Arusha Accords was the following,
" The Broad-Based Transitional Government shall, from the date of its assumption
of office, delete from all official documents to be issued any reference to
ethnic origin." (5) This continued
presence of group classification on ID cards, even after their role in facilitating
genocidal massacres in 1993, shows that both moderates and future killers
recognized in advance the important function these cards might play in ethnically
targeted mass killing, such as later ensued in April 1994.
The Rwandan genocide was systematic and organized and not
a indiscriminate or wanton slaughter as it was sometimes later portrayed.
The killing process was sometimed even segmented into multiple distinct steps,
with persons involved as administrative accomplices as well as direct killers.
The testimony of one witness concerning the actions of Captain Ildéphonse
Nizeyimana, a man who is a fugitive at large, underscores the bureaucratic
nature of the task.
"Soldiers had orders to take identity cards from those whom
they killed.According to one witness, Nizeyimana regularly received these
cards from his men as they reported on the progress of the killings. They
often appeared at his house shortly after a volley of gunfire was heard
and handed the cards to the captain with the report, "Mission accomplished."
In the captain's absence, his wife received the cards." (6)
In addition to facilitating the identification of Tutsi victims,
another role of ID cards in the genocide was that of psychologically distancing
the killers from their victims and from the nature of their task as killers.
Document Analysis
Rwanda - -
- Name and Document form: Indangamuntu,
Carte d'identité, National ID card; Year established: 1933, continued in 1964; Status: discontinued in 1996.
Categories and groups : "Ethnicity"
("Ubwoko" in Kinyarwanda and "Ethnie" in French) appeared immediately beneath
the cardbearer's photograph as the uppermost item on page two of the Rwandan
ID card. Four possible "ethnic" categories appeared with the issuing
official striking a line through all but the applicable category, for example
"Ubwoko (Hutu , Tutsi, Twa, Naturalisé)"
. The term "Naturalisé" applied
to naturalized citizens.
Because the cardbearer's name appeared on page one, the name could not be
seen together with the photograph and ethnicity, except by turning back to
the first page. Below the ethnicity entry pages 2 and 3 of the card included
entries for place of birth, date of birth, profession, place of issue, name
of spouse, signature of the issuing official and the names and birth dates
of up to 12 children. The ethnicity item on the ID card first appeared on
ID cards issued by Belgian colonial authorities after 1933. The entry for
ethnicity on ID cards was retained after Independence in 1962. Before April
1994, about 85% of the population were Hutu, 14% Tutsi, and less than 1% Batwa
(Twa).
Scholars suggest that prior to the rigid Belgian classification system imposed
after 1926 on Rwandans through ID cards, the census and in employment and
education quotas, the Hutu and Tutsi could better have best been described
as social caste groups and not separate ethnic groups. Hutus and Tutsis in
Rwanda share a common language and religious affiliations. Physical differences
sometimes exist, but not always. Intermarriage between the groups has always
occurred with some frequency. After the genocide, new cards were issued without
the ethnic entry (new residency cards in 1995 and new National ID cards in
1996).
Comments: Nearly three years before April 1994, in July 1991,
NGOs strongly urged removal of ethnicity from official ID cards. Article 16
of the August 1993 Arusha Accords
also required this action by the projected transitional government. ID cards
were used to identify Tutsi victims for death during the 1994 genocide.
Footnotes
1) Jim Fussell is the Executive
Director of Prevent Genocide International. "Indangamuntu"
is the Kinyarwanda word for ID Card. This webpage contains excerpts
from a longer paper presented on June 10, 2001 as "Group Classifications on
National Identity Cards as a Facilitating Factor in Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing,
and Massive Violations of Human Rights" to the International Association of
Genocide Scholars Conference, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. A
revised and expanded version of that paper was presented on November 15, 2001
as "Group
Classification on National Identification Cards as a factor in genocide"
to the Seminar Series of the Yale University Genocide Studies Program.
The comparison between the Nazi and Rwandan ID
cards and a call for further research on this topic was made by Henry R. Huttenbach
in an article entitled "The letter of the Law and the Mark of Cain: When "J"
was and "T" is lethal," Genocide Forum, year 1 (1994), no. 5
2) Prosecutor vs. Jean-Paul Akayesu,
(Case No. ICTR-96-4-T), Judgement, 2 September 1998, paragraph 123; Alison
Des Forges, Leave None
to Tell the Story (Human Rights Watch, 1999) , p. 92, note 60.
3) The full paragraph from the
Hutu Manifesto reads: "Les gens ne sont d'ailleurs pas sans s'être rendu compte
de l'appui de l'administration indirecte au monopole tutsi. Aussi pour mieux
surveiller ce monopole de race, nous nous opposons énergiquement, du moins
pour le moment, à la suppression dans les pièces d'identité officielles ou
privées des mentions "muhutu", "mututsi", "mutwa". Leur suppression risque
encore davantage la sélection en le voilant et en empêchant la loi statistique
de pouvoir établir la vérité des faits. Personne n'a dit d'ailleurs que c'est
le nom qui ennuie le Muhutu; ce sont les privilèges d'un monopole favorisé,
lequel risque de réduire la majorité de la population dans une infériorité
systématique et une sous-existence imméritée" from "Manifeste des Bahutu:
Note sur l'aspect social du problème racial indigène au Ruanda: 24 mars 1957"
in C.M. Overdulve, Rwanda: Un peuple avec une histoire, (Paris, l'Harmattan,
1997), p. 98-111.
4) Philip Gourevitch, We Wish
To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from
Rwanda, (Farrar Straus and Giroux, New York, 1998), p. 90;
5) Arusha Accord (Peace Agreement
between the Government of the Republic of Rwanda and the Rwandese Patriotic
Front), August 1993, Article 16: "Deletion of reference to Ethnic Group in
Official Documents:The Broad-Based Transitional Government shall, from the
date of its assumption of office, delete from all official documents to be
issued any reference to ethnic origin. Documents in use or not yet used shall
be replaced by those not bearing any reference to ethnic origin," Arusha Accord
(Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Rwanda and the
Rwandese Patriotic Front), 4 August 1993.
6)Alison Des Forges, Leave
None to Tell the Story, p. 501, citing Human Rights Watch/FIDH interview,
Brussels, December 12, 1995; Republique Rwandaise, Parquet de la Republique,
P.V. no. 189 and no. 260.
