‘Never Again,’ That Time

WHEN, in 1987, I crossed the border between Rwanda and Zaire, it was like going from a land of obsessive-compulsives into one of chronic hysterics. Everything on the Rwandan side was neat and tidy; everything on the Zairean side was broken down and disorderly. By comparison with Zaire, Rwanda was a haven of peace.

The Switzerland of Africa, expatriates in Rwanda assured me. Rwanda was clean and healthy. The administration was honest and efficient, the public services functioning, the roads well maintained. And just like Switzerland, there were lots of hills and mountains. As for the Rwandan form of democracy, if it was a little oppressive-well, so in its way was Switzerland’s. It is true that the president, Maj.-Gen. Juvénal Habyarimana, had been in power unopposed since 1973 and was reelected with 99.98 percent of the votes cast; and that his party, the Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement, inscribed every Rwandan from the moment of his birth as a member. But the country was prospering, and at least the president was a Hutu. The Hutu were the majority (the Tutsi being only 12 percent), and was not majority rule the first prerequisite of democracy? And if you really insisted on a justification for General Habyarimana, all you had to do was look at Tanzania to the east, and Zaire to the west.

About the Author

Anthony Daniels

Mr. Daniels, a retired doctor who worked in several parts of the world, is the author of Mass Listeria, a book about health scares.

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WHEN, in 1987, I crossed the border between Rwanda and Zaire, it was like going from a land of obsessive-compulsives into one of chronic hysterics. Everything on the Rwandan side was neat and tidy; everything on the Zairean side was broken down and disorderly. By comparison with Zaire, Rwanda was a haven of peace.

The Switzerland of Africa, expatriates in Rwanda assured me. Rwanda was clean and healthy. The administration was honest and efficient, the public services functioning, the roads well maintained. And just like Switzerland, there were lots of hills and mountains. As for the Rwandan form of democracy, if it was a little oppressive-well, so in its way was Switzerland’s. It is true that the president, Maj.-Gen. Juvénal Habyarimana, had been in power unopposed since 1973 and was reelected with 99.98 percent of the votes cast; and that his party, the Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement, inscribed every Rwandan from the moment of his birth as a member. But the country was prospering, and at least the president was a Hutu. The Hutu were the majority (the Tutsi being only 12 percent), and was not majority rule the first prerequisite of democracy? And if you really insisted on a justification for General Habyarimana, all you had to do was look at Tanzania to the east, and Zaire to the west.