Rwanda: Rwanda and the International Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Effort

Rwanda and the International Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Effort

By Antoine D. Terrar

[Mr. Terrar is a DDR Programs Research Associate for the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Nova Scotia, Canada]

Along the Rwandan national highway there stands a tattered yellow sign caked in dirt and blackened by pollution. It reads “Muhazi Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration Camp, 300 Meters.” The narrow muddy road winds through plush green fields leading those willing to travel its path to a small patch of land lightly guarded by Kalashnikov - wielding Rwandan military personnel. Within the guarded perimeters of this small plot of land along the Rwandan-Congolese border, there lies a small makeshift camp with showers, dormitories, a kitchen, and a meeting hall. Black earth creeps onto everything, leaving dark smears on the walls of buildings and on clothing, even embedding itself in the cracks of calloused hands. It’s mid August, around 3pm, already the sun’s light is fading, and there is a chill in the air.

Monolithic ancient volcanoes are cloaked in mist and clouds. There are eyes in the forests surrounding the camp. Every few minutes, camouflaged soldiers reveal themselves from the dense foliage and are then reabsorbed into the forest. Except for the near inaudible whispers and rustling of the forest, the landscape is silent.

The camp is the new home of the ex - Forces Armées Rwandaïses (FAR). These men and women were participants in the 1994 genocide. Forced out of the country and into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they continued a life of ruthless violence. Many began military careers as children. Their stories are sometimes ones of unspeakable horror.

The FAR pose a serious threat to the Government of Rwanda (GoR) and regional stability. To neutralize the threat the FAR pose, the GoR has adopted a disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) program.

DDR is a complex tripartite procedure that attempts to give ex-combatants a viable alternative to armed conflict. For everyone’s safety, ex-combatants are disarmed. Weapons are collected and destroyed. Decreased numbers of people wielding weapons increase the success of sustainable peace. During the second stage, demobilization, combatants are then encamped for the period of time necessary to give them the skills they require to be reintegrated into civilian society. They learn about their rights as citizens and where and how to voice their concerns properly. They also learn practical skills, such as how to manage money and how to create new businesses. However, the most difficult and lengthy part of the DDR process is reintegration.

In this final step in the DDR process, ex-combatants are given a financial “reintegration package” to help them settle in their communities. If used wisely, the money can be used to establish small enterprises, gain training in a skill, or sustain them until they find work. It is a long road home, and the story is much the same for millions around the world.

The world has seen a drastic rise in the number of intrastate conflicts. The sudden absence of two competing superpowers resulted in bloody struggles for power as the US and USSR drastically cut military and diplomatic support for regimes around the globe. Severely weakened central governments plus a flooded international small arms market made it relatively easy for any loosely organized and adequately funded group to begin its own violent rebellion.
Overstocked with weapons, Western nations and former nations of the USSR found a profitable market in Africa. In particular, former Soviet nations, whose economies where in tatters, dumped these weapons into conflicts in Africa as an easy way to make quick capital, thus fueling –or heating up-- the fires of local conflicts. Lack of international laws and norms on small arms transfers also added flame to several fires. In Phnom Penh markets people could purchase anti-personnel landmines for $3 USD. In some places, AK-47’s can still be had for a new pair of shoes.

Millions of weapons were dispersed throughout the world. The international community needed a process by which those weapons and the people behind those weapons could be neutralized. Peace cannot be sustained simply by signing a peace accord between parties to a conflict. In an attempt to strengthen the peace, avoid post-conflict banditry; lawlessness; and relapse into armed conflict, the international community created the DDR process.

Ex-combatants, pushed by extreme poverty, have continued to take drastic measures and put their lives on the line for a better future. Despite the benefit packages given to them by the international community, these people still return to poverty, often to circumstances that are worse a worse than when they joined the para-military. Also, as is too often the case, once the armed conflict is halted and the weapons have been collected, the international community turns its back on these people, unwilling to take them on and seeing in them only a long term and costly commitment. Consequently, their political leaders use their newly found powers for personal gain, living lavishly at the expense of some their own people.

Rwandan combatants repatriating from the Congo will return to a home that will seem foreign. Already unsure of their personal safety from legal prosecution and ethnic persecution, retribution, unemployment, and poverty, these ex-combatant returnees are making a decision as risky as the decision to go to war. Because, this time, living in peace may prove to be the greater risk. Their success is not guaranteed, but the little help and attention they have been offered may make the difference in helping them find or create legitimate employment, which will in its turn help rebuild the economy and establish peace in Rwanda.