Belgičané a nezdařená dekolonizace Rwandy
Belgians and the Decolonisation Failure in Rwanda

Summary/Abstract: Rwanda has become a symbol of the worst crimes against humanity in both modern and contemporary history. Before the outbreak of the genocide in 1994 Rwanda had been coping with social unrestenabled by the inappropriate, sometimes chaotic and not very pragmatic policy of the Belgian administration which had been favorizing the Tutsi aristocracy for several decades. This was the stimulus for a social revolution led by the Hutu during the decolonisation which brought chaos and violence to the country. The study deals with the Belgian colonial policy and inner tensions in Rwanda in the period of decolonisation between the years 1957–1961. The Belgian colonialism was of supreme importance in the process of forming of Rwandan political thinking and political parties since Belgians were not merely passive spectators as their policy of “indirect rule” might imply but actively contributed to establishing new ethnical, political and social organisations, movements and associations. The roots of the Rwandan genocide can be therefore found in the period of colonialism and culminating decolonisation in particular.

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