The Rwandan Genocide: International Finance Policies and Human Rights

the genoCiDe of the RwanDan tutsis seRves to ReMinD us of the ethniC, political, and economic conditions that are typical for postcolonial states. Ethnic identities are often magnified, if not manufactured, by occupying forces or national elites during the colonial period. Once independence has been obtained, ethnic identities are often internally enhanced for the political purposes of the new ruling regime. Like their colonial forebears, the rulers of the new regime often employ the strategy of pitting one ethnic group against the other (“divide and rule”), particularly through their military, human rights, and macroeconomic decisions. Additionally, they often form one-party states that perpetuate conditions of governance similar to those experienced under colonial rule. In turn, these states reproduce or exacerbate the political, economic, and ethnic crises originally resulting from colonial exploitation of regional and national resources (Chossudousky, 1995; Chossudousky and Galand, 1996). These political conditions contribute to the instability felt throughout postcolonial environments. The new regimes monopolize existing resources, leaving subordinate populations in socioeconomic conditions analogous to (or worse than) those characterizing colonial rule. Widespread inequities of access to social, political, and economic capital are perpetuated by these new social arrangements. The histories of postcolonial states frequently degenerate into civil wars or other internecine conflicts that undermine the fragile forms of social organization built out of the anomic social rubble of colonial decampment. In the most extreme cases, such as Rwanda, genocides arise. Even though the previously oppressed Hutus gained