ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the cataclysm in which more than 500,000 people were killed in Rwanda in mid-1994 marked the culmination of a program of government-sponsored violence and intimidation intended to frustrate efforts to change the structures of power and democratize the political system. Juvénal Habyarimana attained power with considerable public support, and for over a decade he was able to maintain an image of competence and fairness both at home and abroad. The disastrous turn of events in Rwanda provides a number of lessons and warnings for other African countries in the throes of democratic transition. The relationship of the general public to the democracy movement in a country may not be as simple and direct as it first appears. The line between political protest and simple criminal activity was often murky, and the government was able to use the rise in crime and other elements of social deterioration to serve its own ends.
