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Rwanda

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rww

12/04/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Trump joined leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to sign an accord — and to marvel at the new name his administration gave the building.

The Pentagon spokesman insisted the report completely exonerated Hegseth.

Fox Business host Katrina Campins advised women that they would get “hotter” if they joined the Republican Party on Wednesday, declaring, “All Republican women are hot.”

Calls for disenfranchisement rest on a single assumption: that women’s citizenship is partial and conditional.

Conservative Princeton University professor Robert P. George is warning the Republican Party and the modern conservative movement to jettison its growing bigot wing quickly before they destroy the party.

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late in 2nd hr

https://kpfa.org/episode/upfront-july-15-2019/

david droit (sp) zurich

pastoral v farmer

10% of death attrib to radio (played pop music vs classical)

https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/137646/

Yanagizawa-Drott, David (2014). Propaganda and conflict: evidence from the Rwandan genocide. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(4):1947-1994.

Abstract

This article investigates the role of mass media in times of conflict and state-sponsored mass violence against civilians. We use a unique village-level data set from the Rwandan genocide to estimate the impact of a popular radio station that encouraged violence against the Tutsi minority population. The results show that the broadcasts had a significant effect on participation in killings by both militia groups and ordinary civilians. An estimated 51,000 perpetrators, or approximately 10% of the overall violence, can be attributed to the station. The broadcasts increased militia violence not only directly by influencing behavior in villages with radio reception but also indirectly by increasing participation in neighboring villages. In fact, spillovers are estimated to have caused more militia violence than the direct effects. Thus, the article provides evidence that mass media can affect participation in violence directly due to exposure and indirectly due to social interactions

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Overthrow

Mobutu was overthrown in the First Congo War by Laurent-Désiré **Kabila**, who was supported by the governments of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

Tutsis had long opposed Mobutu, due to his open support for Rwandan Hutu extremists responsible for the Rwandan genocidein 1994. When his government issued an order in November 1996 forcing Tutsis to leave Zaire on penalty of death, they erupted in rebellion. From eastern Zaire, with the support of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Rwandan Minister of DefensePaul Kagame, they launched an offensive to overthrow Mobutu, joining forces with locals opposed to him as they marched west toward Kinshasa.

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Hutu did massacre. mobuto drc role?  aftermath?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda

Rwanda (/:{ruːˈɑːndə:(style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted"):}:/ or /:{ruːˈændə:(style="border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted"):}:/), officially the Republic of Rwanda(Kinyarwanda: Repubulika y'u Rwanda; French: République du Rwanda), is asovereign state in central and east Africa. Located a few degrees south of theEquator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is highly elevated; its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate of the country is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year.

The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa. Rwandans are composed of three ethnic groups: the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa.The Twa are a forest-dwelling pygmy people descended from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants. Scholars disagree on the origins of and differences between the Hutu and Tutsi; some believe differences are derived from former social castes, while others view them as being ethnicities or tribes. Christianity is the largest religion in the country; the principal language is Kinyarwanda, spoken by most Rwandans, with French and English serving as official languages. Rwanda has a presidential systemof government. The president is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front(RPF), who took office in 2000. Rwanda today has low corruption compared with neighbouring countries, although human rights organisations report suppression of opposition groups, intimidation and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by a strict administrative hierarchy since precolonial times; there are five provinces delineated by borders drawn in 2006. Rwanda has the world's highest proportion of females in government positions in proportion to the population.

Hunter gatherers settled the territory in the stone and iron ages, followed later byBantu peoples. The population coalesced first into clans and then into kingdoms. The Kingdom of Rwanda dominated from the mid-eighteenth century, with the Tutsi kings conquering others militarily, centralising power, and later enacting anti-Hutu policies. Germany colonised Rwanda in 1884 as part of German East Africa, followed by Belgium, which invaded in 1916 during World War I. Both European nations ruled through the kings and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy. The Hutu population revolted in 1959. They massacred numerous Tutsi and ultimately established an independent, Hutu-dominated state in 1962. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a civil war in 1990. Social tensions erupted in the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 1 million Tutsi and moderate Hutu. The RPF ended the genocide with a military victory.

Rwanda's economy suffered heavily during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, but has since strengthened. The economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture. Coffee and tea are the major cash crops for export. Tourism is a fast-growing sector and is now the country's leading foreign exchange earner. Rwanda is one of only two countries in which mountain gorillas can be visited safely, and visitors are prepared to pay high prices for gorilla tracking permits. Music and dance are an integral part of Rwandan culture, particularly drums and the highly choreographedintore dance. Traditional arts and crafts are produced throughout the country, including imigongo, a unique cow dung art.

Contents

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History

Main article: History of Rwanda

Modern human settlement of what is now Rwanda dates from, at the latest, the last glacial period, either in the Neolithic period around 8000 BC, or in the long humid period which followed, up to around 3000 BC.[6] Archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of sparse settlement by hunter gatherers in the late stone age, followed by a larger population of early Iron Agesettlers, who produced dimpled pottery and iron tools.[7][8] These early inhabitants were the ancestors of the Twa, aboriginalpygmy hunter-gatherers who remain in Rwanda today.[9] Between 700 BC and 1500 AD, a number of Bantu groups migrated into Rwanda, clearing forest land for agriculture.[10][9] The forest-dwelling Twa lost much of their habitat and moved to the mountain slopes.[11] Historians have several theories regarding the nature of the Bantu migrations; one theory is that the first settlers were Hutu, while the Tutsi migrated later to form a distinct racial group, possibly of Cushitic origin.[12] An alternative theory is that the migration was slow and steady, with incoming groups integrating into rather than conquering the existing society.[13][9] Under this theory, the Hutu and Tutsi distinction arose later and was a class distinction rather than a racial one.[14][15]

...

clan (ubwoko).[16] Clans existed across the Great Lakes region, with around twenty in the area that is now Rwanda.[when?][17] The clans were not limited to genealogical lineages or geographical area, and most included Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa.[17] From the 15th century, the clans began to coalesce into kingdoms;[18] by 1700 around eight kingdoms existed in present-day Rwanda.[19] One of these, the Kingdom of Rwanda, ruled by the Tutsi Nyiginya clan, became increasingly dominant from the mid-eighteenth century.[20] The kingdom reached its greatest extent during the nineteenth century under the reign of King Kigeli Rwabugiri. Rwabugiri conquered several smaller states, expanded the kingdom west and north,[21][20] and initiated administrative reforms; these included ubuhake, in which Tutsi patrons ceded cattle, and therefore privileged status, to Hutu or Tutsi clients in exchange for economic and personal service,[22] and uburetwa, a corvée system in which Hutu were forced to work for Tutsi chiefs.[21] Rwabugiri's changes caused a rift to grow between the Hutu and Tutsi populations.[21] The Twa were better off than in pre-Kingdom days, with some becoming dancers in the royal court,[11] but their numbers continued to decline.[23]

The Berlin Conference of 1884 assigned the territory to Germany as part of German East Africa, marking the beginning of the colonial era. The explorer Gustav Adolf von Götzen was the first European to significantly explore the country in 1894; he crossed from the south-east to Lake Kivu and met the king.[24][25] The Germans did not significantly alter the social structure of the country, but exerted influence by supporting the king and the existing hierarchy and delegating power to local chiefs.[26] Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi during World War I, beginning a period of more direct colonial rule.[27] Belgium simplified and centralised the power structure,[28] and introduced large-scale projects in education, health, public works, and agricultural supervision, including new crops and improved agricultural techniques to try to reduce the incidence of famine.[29] Both the Germans and the Belgians promoted Tutsi supremacy, considering the Hutu and Tutsi different races.[30] In 1935, Belgium introduced identity cards labelling each individual as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalised. While it had previously been possible for particularly wealthy Hutu to become honorary Tutsi, the identity cards prevented any further movement between the classes.[31]

Belgium continued to rule Rwanda as a UN Trust Territory after World War II, with a mandate to oversee independence.[32][33]Tension escalated between the Tutsi, who favoured early independence, and the Hutu emancipation movement, culminating in the 1959 Rwandan Revolution: Hutu activists began killing Tutsi, forcing more than 100,000 to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.[34][35] In 1961, the now pro-Hutu Belgians held a referendum in which the country voted to abolish the monarchy. Rwanda was separated from Burundi and gained independence in 1962.[36] Cycles of violence followed, with exiled Tutsi attacking from neighbouring countries and the Hutu retaliating with large-scale slaughter and repression of the Tutsi.[37] In 1973, Juvénal Habyarimana took power in a military coup. Pro-Hutu discrimination continued, but there was greater economic prosperity and a reduced amount of violence against Tutsi.[38] The Twa remained marginalised, and by 1990 were almost entirely forced out of the forests by the government; many became beggars.[39] Rwanda's population had increased from 1.6 million people in 1934 to 7.1 million in 1989, leading to competition for land.[40]

In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsirefugees, invaded northern Rwanda, initiating the Rwandan Civil War.[41] Neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage in the war,[42] but by 1992 it had weakened Habyarimana's authority; mass demonstrations forced him into a coalition with the domestic opposition and eventually to sign the 1993 Arusha Accords with the RPF.[43] The cease-fire ended on 6 April 1994 when **Habyarimana's plane was shot down** near Kigali Airport, killing him.[44] The shooting down of the plane served as the catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide, which began within a few hours. Over the course of approximately 100 days, between 500,000 and 1,000,000[45] Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government.[46]Many Twa were also killed, despite not being directly targeted.[39] The Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, and took control of the country methodically, gaining control of the whole country by mid-July.[47] 

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The international response to the Genocide was limited, with major powers reluctant to strengthen the already overstretched UN peacekeeping force.[48] When the RPF took over, approximately two million Hutu fled to neighbouring countries, in particular Zaire, fearing reprisals;[49] additionally, the RPF-led army was a key belligerent in the First and Second Congo Wars.[50] Within Rwanda, a period of reconciliation and justice began, with the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the reintroduction of Gacaca, a traditional village court system. During the 2000s Rwanda's economy, tourist numbers and Human Development Index grew rapidly;[51][52] between 2006 and 2011 the poverty rate reduced from 57% to 45%,[53] and child mortality rates dropped from 180 per 1000 live births in 2000 to 111 per 1000 in 2009.[54]

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United States

Prior to the war, the U.S. government had aligned itself with Tutsi interests, in turn raising Hutu concerns about potential U.S. support to the opposition. Paul Kagame, a Tutsi officer in exile in Uganda who had co-founded the RPF in 1986 and was in open conflict with the Rwandan government, was invited to receive military training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, home of the Command and General Staff College. In October 1990, while Kagame was at Fort Leavenworth, the RPF started an invasion of Rwanda. Only two days into the invasion, Kagame's close friend and RPF co-founder Fred Rwigyema was killed, upon which the U.S. arranged the return of Kagame to Uganda from where he became the military commander of the RPF.[223] An article in the Washington Post of August 16, 1997 indicates that the connection continued as RPF elements received counterinsurgency and combat training from U.S. Special Forces.[224][225]

In January 1994, NSC member Richard Clarke developed a formal US peacekeeping doctrine, Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD-25).

There were no U.S. troops officially in Rwanda at the onset of the genocide. A National Security Archive report points out five ways in which decisions made by the U.S. government contributed to the slow U.S. and worldwide response to the genocide:

The U.S. lobbied the U.N. for a total withdrawal of U.N. (UNAMIR) forces in Rwanda in April 1994;

Secretary of State Warren Christopher did not authorize officials to use the term "genocide" until May 21, and even then, U.S. officials waited another three weeks before using the term in public;

Bureaucratic infighting slowed the U.S. response to the genocide in general;[nb no cite, netween? b/c of?]

The U.S. refused to jam extremist radio broadcasts inciting the killing, citing costs and concern with international law;

U.S. officials knew exactly who was leading the genocide, and actually spoke with those leaders to urge an end to the violence but did not follow up with concrete action.[226]

Intelligence reports indicate that President Clinton and his cabinet were aware before the height of the massacre that a "final solution to eliminate all Tutsis" was planned.[227]

Fear of a repeat of the events in Somalia shaped US policy in subsequent years, with many commentators identifying the graphic consequences of the Battle of Mogadishu as the key reason behind the US's failure to intervene in later conflicts such as the Rwandan Genocide. After the battle, the bodies of several US casualties of the conflict were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by crowds of local civilians and members of Aidid's Somali National Alliance. According to the US's former deputy special envoy to Somalia, Walter Clarke: "The ghosts of Somalia continue to haunt US policy. Our lack of response in Rwanda was a fear of getting involved in something like a Somalia all over again."[228] President Clinton has referred to the failure of the U.S. government to intervene in the genocide as one of his main foreign policy failings, saying "I don't think we could have ended the violence, but I think we could have cut it down. And I regret it."[229] Eighty percent of the discussion in Washington concerned the evacuation of American citizens.[230]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#United_States

In Kill the Messenger McH Stacks P95.8 .A76 2011 Maria Armoudian asks, What role do the media have in creating the conditions for atrocities such as occurred in Rwanda? Conversely, can the media be used to preserve democracy and safeguard the human rights of all citizens in a diverse society? How will the media, now global in scope, affect the fate of the planet itself, including climate? review, video talk author interview 8/11.

Soil loss was a significant factor in the Rwanda genocide.

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curent/future

http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/Rwanda.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39603000/ns/world_news-africa/t/second-rwanda-genocide-revealed-congo/#.VbVF9vlViko

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Climate change, drought and pastoralism in the Sahel

Discussion note for the World Initiative on Sustainable Pastoralism, prepared by Nick Brooks, November 2006

Questions on adaptation

With the recent Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change, held in Nairobi (November 2006), significant international attentionhas been drawn to the issue of climate change. It is widely recognised that developing countries stand to suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change, they arein the weakest position to mitigate the adverse effects and stand to lose some of thecurrent development gains that have been made as a result.In the build up to the UNFCCC meeting, a number of NGOs began to voice their concerns about the impact of climate change on pastoral livelihoods, particularly in partsof the world where droughts lead to famine and poverty for pastoralists. However, therole of climate change in undermining pastoral livelihoods remains unclear, particularly given the multitude of other factors that contribute to pastoral poverty. The World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism therefore commissioned a paper from Nick Brooks1to learn more about the realities of climate change and adaptation in the drylands.For pastoralists the situation is complex. Their production system is already anadaptation to hostile environments: according to Nick Brooks’ paper pastoralism in Africa arose 5000 years ago precisely as an adaptation to climate change at that time.However, with the current marginalisation of pastoralists, their adaptive capacities may have been eroded and they may be more susceptible to climate change than other communities. Conversely, climate change could conceivably lead to the creation of moredryland resources that are suited to pastoralism, thus creating new opportunities for  pastoralists to exploit. However, the likelihood and the implications of such changes arevery uncertain.This paper has been drafted partly to stimulate discussion on this complex, but very current topic. A number of questions remain difficult to answer, or at least contentious.Other important questions may yet to be brought into current debates. For example,what is adaptation in the pastoral context? How does it manifest itself? Do pastoralistshave first hand experience of climate change yet and how are they adapting? How hastheir adaptive capacity been curtailed and how can it be restored? Is there a differencebetween adaptation and development or is adaptive capacity merely an indicator of development?

Introduction

Between the early 1970s and the mid 1990s the African Sahel experienced one of themost dramatic long-term changes in climate observed anywhere in the world in thetwentieth century, with rainfall declining on average by more than twenty per cent(Hulme

et al

., 2001).

This period of climatic desiccation was associated with a number of very severe droughts, most notably in the early 1970s and 1980s, during whichhundreds of thousands of people and millions of animals died (Glantz, 1976, 1996).Since the early 1970s there has been extensive discussion about the causes of theSahelian desiccation. Early theories such as that of Charney pointed the finger at land

degradation and desertification caused by overgrazing and “inappropriate land use”(Charney

et al

., 1975, 1977).

However, while soil erosion and over-exploitation of resources are undoubtedly problems in some areas, the evidence for anthropogenically-driven land degradation leading to drought throughout the Sahelian region is lacking. It is now well established that, rather than being a consequence the abuse of the land by humans and animals, the late twentieth century Sahelian desiccation was a product of long-term climate variability driven by changes in patterns of global surface temperature. Dry conditions in the Sahel occur during periods in which the southern hemisphere oceans and northern Indian Ocean are warmer than the remaining northern hemisphere oceans, and it is a shift to such a pattern of global temperature distributions that is now widely accepted as being responsible for the turn towards aridity in the Sahel from the late 1960s (Giannini

et al

., 2003).

Long-term climate variability in northern Africa

The relationship between a relatively warm southern hemisphere and cool northernhemisphere and dry conditions over northern ..

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Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change

By HENRY FOUNTAIN MARCH 2, 2015

Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said Monday that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that the drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011.

The drought was the worst in the country in modern times, and in a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists laid the blame for it on a century-long trend toward warmer and drier conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean, rather than on natural climate variability.

The researchers said this trend matched computer simulations of how the region responds to increases in greenhouse-gas emissions, and appeared to be due to two factors: a weakening of winds that bring moisture-laden air from the Mediterranean and hotter temperatures that cause more evaporation.

Mr. Kadhim, an Iraqi soldier and a Shiite, survived a massacre by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. video Surviving an ISIS MassacreSEPT. 3, 2014

Colin P. Kelley, the lead author of the study, said he and his colleagues found that while Syria and the rest of the region known as the Fertile Crescent were normally subject to periodic dry periods, “a drought this severe was two to three times more likely” because of the increasing aridity in the region.

Dr. Kelley, who did the research while at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and is now at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said there was no apparent natural cause for the warming and drying trend, which developed over the last 100 years, when humans’ effect on climate has been greatest.

Martin P. Hoerling, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration whose earlier work showed a link between climate change and aridity in the Eastern Mediterranean, said the researchers’ study was “quite compelling.”

“The paper makes a strong case for the first link in their causal chain,” Dr. Hoerling said in an email, “namely the human interference with the climate so as to increase drought likelihood in Syria.”

Some social scientists, policy makers and others have previously suggested that the drought played a role in the Syrian unrest, and the researchers addressed this as well, saying the drought “had a catalytic effect.” They cited studies that showed that the extreme dryness, combined with other factors, including misguided agricultural and water-use policies of the Syrian government, caused crop failures that led to the migration of as many as 1.5 million people from rural to urban areas. This in turn added to social stresses that eventually resulted in the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

What began as civil war has since escalated into a multifaceted conflict, with at least 200,000 deaths. The United Nations estimates that half of the country’s 22 million people have been affected, with more than six million having been internally displaced.

The researchers said that there were many factors that contributed to the chaos, including the influx of 1.5 million refugees from Iraq, and that it was impossible to quantify the effect of any one event like a drought.

Francesco Femia, founder and director of the Center for Climate and Security, a research group in Washington that has long argued that the Syrian drought had a climate-change component, said the new study “builds on previous work looking at the impact of drought on agricultural and pastoral livelihoods.”

“There’s no question that the drought had a role to play in the mass displacement of people,” he said.

The link between climate change and conflict has been debated for years. A working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrote in 2014 that there was “justifiable common concern” that climate change increased the risk of armed conflict in certain circumstances, but said it was unclear how strong the effect was.

The United States military has described climate change as a “threat multiplier” that may lead to greater instability in parts of the world.

Earlier studies trying to show a link between climate change and conflict have been rebutted by some scientists, and it is not clear how far this new study will go toward settling the issue.

Thomas Bernauer, a professor of political science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich who has been critical of some earlier studies, said he was skeptical about this one as well. “The evidence for the claim that this drought contributed to the outbreak of civil war in Syria is very speculative and not backed up by robust scientific evidence,” he wrote in an email.

Mark A. Cane, an author of the study and a scientist at Lamont-Doherty, which is part of Columbia University, defended the work. “I think there’s a really good case here,” he said. “But I think we’ve tried to explain that the connection from an extraordinary climate event to conflict is complex and certainly involves other factors.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html?_r=0

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