The Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (french: Coalition pour la Défense de la République, CDR) was a

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

n far-right Hutu Power political party that took a major role in inciting the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...

History

The CDR was founded in 1992 and initially led by

Martin Bucyana Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

until his assassination on 22 February 1994. The party was allied with the ruling National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRNDD), and used the slogan "Mube maso" ("Watch out!"), which meant that Hutus should beware or the

Tutsis The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic ...

would rule them as they had in the past. Unlike the MRNDD, the CDR did not agree to the Arusha Accords and Statement of Ethics. It was therefore shut out of the Broad-Based Transitional Government.

Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza (1950 – 25 April 2010) was a convicted Génocidiare and politician associated with the Hutu Power movement. A high-ranking civil servant, Barayagwiza served as policy director within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at ...

, a founding member of the CDR, was convicted by the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nation ...

for several

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

-related charges other

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

. The CDR created the Impuzamugambi ("Those who have the same goal") militia, which took part in the killings. The CDR refused to operate within the

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

or cooperate with other Rwandan political parties it opposed.Christian P. Scherrer (2003) ''Ethnicity, nationalism, and violence: conflict management, human rights, and multilateral regimes'', Ashgate Publishing, pp328 The CDR had a paramilitary wing, the '' Impuzamugambi'' that repeatedly provoked violent confrontations with members of other parties it opposed, by using hand grenades and bombs in such confrontations, and served as one of the death squads that massacred Tutsis in the Rwandan Genocide.

Ideology

The CDR supported the principles developed by Hutu Power supremacist

Hassan Ngeze Hassan Ngeze (born 25 December 1957) is a Rwandan journalist and convicted war criminal best known for spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda and Hutu superiority through his newspaper, ''Kangura'', which he founded in 1990. Ngeze was a founding member ...

's ''

Hutu Ten Commandments The "Hutu Ten Commandments" (also "Ten Commandments of the Bahutu") was a document published in the December 1990 edition of '' Kangura'', an anti- Tutsi, Hutu Power Kinyarwanda-language newspaper in Kigali, Rwanda. The Hutu Ten Commandments are ...

''.''Ethnicity and sociopolitcal change in Africa and other developing countries: a constructive discourse in state building'', Lexington Books p92 The ''Commandments'' called for the supremacy of Hutus in Rwanda, calling for exclusive Hutu leadership over Rwanda's public institutions and public life and complete segregation of Hutus from Tutsis, and complete exclusion of Tutsis from public institutions and public life.John A. Berry and Carol Pott Berry (1999) ''Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory'', Howard University Press, pp113–115 The Commandments declared that any form of relationship between Hutus and Tutsi women was forbidden and that any Hutu who "marries a Tutsi woman", "befriends a Tutsi woman", or "employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine" was a "traitor" to the Hutu people. It denounced Tutsis as "dishonest" in business whose "only aim is the supremacy of his

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

"; and declared that any Hutu who did business with a Tutsi was a traitor to the Hutu people. The Commandments declared that "The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi" and referred to the Tutsis as "common Tutsi enemy". The CDR was opposed to democracy. It was rejected by other opposition parties as a legitimate participant, who claimed the CDR lacked democratic values.

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Rwanda Rwandan genocide Ethnic political parties Banned far-right parties 1992 establishments in Rwanda Political parties established in 1992 1994 disestablishments in Rwanda Political parties disestablished in 1994

History

Ideology

See also

References