Background:
In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority
ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the
next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some
150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of
these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic
Front, and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several
political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions,
culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis
and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and
ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu
refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring
Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire. Since then, most of the
refugees have returned to Rwanda. Despite substantial international
assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first local
elections in March 1999 - the country continues to struggle to boost
investment and agricultural output and to foster reconciliation. A
series of massive population displacements, a nagging Hutu extremist
insurgency, and Rwandan involvement in two wars over the past four
years in the neighboring DROC continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts.