ABSTRACT

More then ten years after the Rwandan genocide that started in April 1994, there is a consensus in the literature that the killing campaign on the national level was organized by a small group of hardliners both in the military and in the government. Most of them had ties to Rwanda's ruling party. The genocide in Runda found its roots in the intense political battle between members of the local elite supporting Mouvement Démocratique Rwandais (MDR) and Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour le Développement (MRND). This battle emerged out of attempts of the dissatisfied local elite to break the decade long hegemonic community leadership of Claver Kamana and the MRND. His aggressive pro-MRND stand and politics can be partly explained by his economic dependence on the state but his early involvement in the Interahamwe shows he was also ideologically motivated. His radicalization was key to the developments leading up to the genocide.