Abstract
This chapter explores the role of women in The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group currently active in the Eastern DRC conflicts. The FDLR is a group that consists of mostly Rwandan Hutus and is one of the largest military forces active in the eastern DRC. Some of the hardliners of the FDLR can be linked to the orchestration of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The majority of the group’s current members are today refugees or post-genocide recruits drawn from the Congo. While human rights reports and the current literature on the FDLR have focused on the group’s military activities, including its leadership structure, warfare methods and political ideologies, this chapter is offering a gendered analysis of the FDLR, focusing on how the “civilian” refugee women who move about with the rebels experience their life conditions in the rebel movement. Building on anthropological fieldwork and qualitative data collected in a rebel camp in the Congo forest, this chapter analyzes the diverse roles women hold in the group depending on individual history, background, age, ethnicity and how they were recruited to the group. By including women’s voices into the analysis of the FDLR it will show that some women are victims under FDLRs’ control and have traumatic memories and experiences of forced recruitment and violence, whereas other women are active participants in mobilizing violence and share the group’s military, ideological and political goals to return to their home country, Rwanda. Looking at gender roles in the FDLR, I argue, is essential for understanding how the FDLR are organized from the inside. While offering a critical view on gender roles in the FDLR the chapter will help to provide a better understanding of the Rwandan genocide, and its aftermath. The chapter aims to provide policymakers and organizations working to prevent violence and genocide with a better understanding of how gender and societal roles are lived and acted out inside an armed group in contexts of ongoing violence. Only in this way can we find strategies to prevent atrocities and mass violence in the future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Anna Hedlund, “Exile Warriors.” Violence and Community among Hutu rebels in the eastern Congo (PhD thesis, Lund University, 2014); Anna Hedlund, “‘There was no genocide in Rwanda’: History, Politics, and Exile Identity among Rwandan Rebels in the Eastern Congo Conflict,” Conflict & Society: Advances in Research 1: 1 (2015).
- 2.
In other publications, I have described my fieldwork in detail, including security issues (Hedlund, “Exile Warriors”). It is worth mentioning that while personal safety can never be guaranteed in a conflict situation, I worked closely with a Congolese field assistant who was well aware of the conflict dynamics in the region. The fighters and civilians in the rebel camp always treated me well. The rebels had an interest in having a foreign researcher among them; for example, they often used me as a vehicle to transmit political ideologies. I also believe that having a visitor in the camp was a way to prove to the outside world that they are not génocidaires, but also that they had a genuine interest in telling me about their experiences.
- 3.
The author has changed names of informants in order to protect their identity.
- 4.
About 150–200 soldiers and civilians lived in the rebel camp where I carried out my fieldwork.
- 5.
In many areas the FDLR live together with civilians and have daily interactions with locals. Some informants said they met their husband in a local community; others said (Rwandan Hutu women) that it was important for them to marry someone from Rwanda.
- 6.
Interviews were carried out in English, French and/or Kinyarwanda. While the leaders speak English, most of my informants preferred to speak in the local language, Kinyarwanda. During my fieldwork I worked together with a field assistant who helped me to translate interviews to English. Language barriers are always a problem and some important information may have been lost or misunderstood in translation. To avoid misinterpretations, I consulted a Kinyarwanda-speaking student in Sweden to cross check translation.
- 7.
Centre De Transit et D’orientation Pour Enfants Sortis de Forces et Groupes Armés Au Sud-Kivu (BVES).
- 8.
Veena Das, “Trauma and Testimony. Implications for Political Economy,” Anthropological Theory 3: 3 (2003).
- 9.
Patricia O. Daley, Gender and Genocide in Burundi. The Search for Spaces of Peace in the Great Lakes Region (Indiana University Press, 2008), 27; Adam Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” Journal of Genocide Research 4: 1 (2002).
- 10.
Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda.”
- 11.
Human Rights Watch, Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the Rwandan Genocide and its aftermath (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1996), see also, Loveness H. Schafer, “True Survivors: East African Refugee Women,” Africa Today 49: 2 (2002); E. Jennie Burnet, “Situating Sexual Violence in Rwanda (1990–2001). Sexual Agency, Sexual Consent, and the Political Economy of War,” African Studies Review 55: 2 (2012a).
- 12.
Des Forges (1999).
- 13.
Schafer, “True Survivors,” 31.
- 14.
Chris Coulter, Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers. Women’s Lives through War and Peace in Sierra Leone (Cornell University Press, 2009).
- 15.
Sara E. Brown, “Female Perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 16, no 3 (2014). See also E. Jennie Burnet, Genocide Lives in Us. Women, Memory and Silence in Rwanda (The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012b) and Jones, “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda.”
- 16.
Lori Poloni-Staudinger and Candice D. Ortbals, Terrorism and Violent Conflict. Women’s Agency, Leadership and Responses (New York, Heidelberg, Dordrecht & London: Springer, 2013): 2.
- 17.
Wafula Okumu & Augustine Ikekegbe (eds), Militias, Rebels and Islamist Militants. Human Insecurity and State Crises in Africa (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2010).
- 18.
Gerard Prunier, The Rwandan Crisis: History of a Genocide (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995).
- 19.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR CDR Background paper on Refugees and Asylum Seekers from Rwanda (December 1, 1998).
- 20.
Human Rights Watch, Shattered Lives.
- 21.
United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1993–2003. Report of the Mapping Exercise Documenting the Most Serious Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Committed within the Territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo between March 1993 and June 2003 (Geneva, August 2010).
- 22.
René Lemarchand, “Bearing Witness to Mass Murder,” African Studies Review 48: 3 (2005).
- 23.
K Emizet, “The Massacre of Refugees in Congo: A Case of UN Peacekeeping Failure and International Law,” Journal of Modern African Studies 38: 2 (2000): 173–179.
- 24.
Filip Reyntjens, The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996–2006 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 93.
- 25.
René Lemarchand, “Genocide in the Great Lakes: Which Genocide? Whose Genocide?” African Studies Review 41: 1 (1998), see also Aliko Songolo, “Marie Beatrice Umutesi’s Truth: The other Rwanda Genocide?” African Studies Review 48: 3 (2005): 110, and Filip Reyntjens, Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda (Cambridge University Press, 2013), 110–115.
- 26.
Marie-Beatrice Umutesi, Surviving the Slaughter. The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2000).
- 27.
Lemarchand, “Bearing Witness to Mass Murder.”
- 28.
Focus here is on violence committed by the FDLR. For a reading on the group’s leadership, ideologies, military activities and identity, see for example Suda Perera, “Alternative Agency: Rwandan Refugee Warriors in Exclusionary States,” Conflict, Security and Development 13: 5 (2013); Hans Romkema, Opportunities and Constraints of the disarmament and Repatriation of foreign armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The World Bank, 2007; Pole Institute, Guerrillas in the Midst. The Congolese Experience of the FDLR War in Eastern Congo and the Role of International Community (Pole Institute, 2010); SSRC, Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum. “FDLR: Past, Present and Policies,” 2014.
- 29.
UN Group of Experts, Final Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (United Nations Security Council, S/2015/19, 2015).
- 30.
Anna Maedl, “Rape as a Weapon of War in the Eastern DRC? The Victims’ Perspective,” Human Rights Quarterly 33: 1 (2011).
- 31.
Her informants identified the militiamen based on language/dialects who reported that soldiers spoke Kinyarwanda, the main language spoken among the FDLR.
- 32.
UN Group of Experts. Final Report, Pole Institute, Guerrillas in the Midst, and International Crisis Group, “Congo: A Comprehensive Strategy to Disarm the FDLR,” Africa Report 151 (2009).
- 33.
UN Group of Experts, Final Report, paragraph 72.
- 34.
Romkema, Opportunities and Constraints, and UN Group of Experts, Final Report.
- 35.
Chris Coulter, Bush Wives.
- 36.
It is not easy to get access to active fighters. I choose this particular camp because of access granted by high-ranking leaders. I am aware that my data is not representative for all camps controlled by the FDLR and is only based on interviews and observations from one setting and a relatively small population who lived in the camp at that time.
- 37.
Hedlund, Exile Warriors.
- 38.
Hedlund, “‘There was No Genocide in Rwanda,’” and Romkema, Opportunities and Constraints.
- 39.
Hedlund, Exile Warriors.
- 40.
Hedlund, Exile Warriors; see also Romkema, Opportunities and Constraints, and Romkema 2009.
- 41.
Tazreena Sajjad, “The Post-Genocidal Period and its Impact on Women,” in Totten, Samuel (ed). Plight and Fate of Women During and Following Genocide (New Brunswick & London: Transaction Publishers, 2012), and Vamik D. Volkan, “Transgenerational Transmissions and Chosen Traumas: An Aspect of Large-Group Identity,” Group Analysis 34: 1 (2001) and Third Reich in the Unconsciousness: Transgenerational Transmission and Its Consequences. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2002.
- 42.
Volkan, “Transgenerational Transmissions,” and Third Reich in the Unconsciousness.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
Sajjad, “The Post-Genocidal Period.”
- 45.
Ibid.
References
Burnet, E. Jennie. “Situating Sexual Violence in Rwanda (1990–2001). Sexual Agency, Sexual Consent, and the Political Economy of War,” African Studies Review 55: 2 (2012a): 97–188.
Burnet, E. Jennie. Genocide Lives in Us. Women, Memory and Silence in Rwanda. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012b.
Brown, E, Sara. “Female Perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 6: 3 (2014): 448–469.
Coulter, Chris. Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers. Women’s Lives through War and Peace in Sierra Leone. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 2009.
Daley, Patricia O. Gender and Genocide in Burundi. The Search for Spaces of Peace in the Great Lakes Region. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.
Das, Veena. “Trauma and Testimony. Implications for Political Economy,” Anthropological Theory 3: 3 (2003): 293–307.
Des Forges, Alison. Leave No One to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999.
Emizet, K. “The Massacre of Refugees in Congo: A Case of UN Peacekeeping Failure and International Law,” Journal of Modern African Studies 38: 2 (2000), 173–179.
Hedlund, Anna. “ Exile Warriors.” Violence and Community Among Hutu Rebels in the Eastern Congo. PhD thesis. Lund University, 2014.
Hedlund, Anna. “’There was no genocide in Rwanda’: History, Politics, and Exile Identity among Rwandan Rebels in the Eastern Congo Conflict,” Conflict & Society: Advances in Research 1: 1 (2015): 23–40.
Human Rights Watch. Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence During the Rwandan Genocide and its aftermath. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1996.
International Crisis Group. “Congo: A Comprehensive Strategy to Disarm the FDLR,” Africa Report 151, 2009: 1–36.
Jones, Adam. “Gender and Genocide in Rwanda,” Journal of Genocide Research 4: 1 (2002): 65–94.
Lemarchand, René. “Genocide in the Great Lakes: Which Genocide? Whose Genocide?” African Studies Review 41: 1 (1998): 3–16.
Lemarchand, René. “Bearing Witness to Mass Murder.” African Studies Review 48: 3 (2005): 93–101.
Maedl, Anna. “Rape as a Weapon of War in the Eastern DRC? The Victims’ Perspective.” Human Rights Quarterly 33: 1 (2011): 128–147.
Newbury, Catharine. “Foreword.” In: Umutesi, Marie-Beatrice, Surviving the Slaughter. The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire. Madison & Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Poloni-Staudinger, Lori and D. Candice Ortbals. Terrorism and Violent Conflict. Women’s Agency, Leadership and Responses. New York, Heidelberg, Dordrecht & London: Springer, 2013.
Okumu, Wafula & Ikekegbe, Augustine (eds). Militias, Rebels and Islamist Militants. Human Insecurity and State Crises in Africa. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2010.
Perera, Suda. “Alternative Agency: Rwandan Refugee Warriors in Exclusionary States,” Conflict, Security and Development 13: 5 (2013): 596–588.
Pole Institute. Guerrillas in the Midst. The Congolese Experience of the FDLR War in Eastern Congo and the Role of International Community. Pole Institute, 2010. Available online: http://www.pole-institute.org/sites/default/files/pole-fdlr-english.pdf [7 June, 2016].
Prunier, Gerard. The Rwandan Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Romkema, Hans. Opportunities and Constraints of the Disarmament and Repatriation of Foreign Armed Groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The World Bank, 2007. Available online:http://tdrp.net/mdrp/PDFs/MDRP_DRC_COFS_Study.pdf [June 7, 2016].
Reyntjens, Filip. The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996–2006. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Reyntjens, Filip. Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Sajjad, Tazreena. “The Post-Genocidal Period and its Impact on Women,” in: Totten, Samuel (ed). Plight and Fate of Women During and Following Genocide. New Brunswick & London: Transaction Publishers, 2012.
Schafer, Loveness H. “True Survivors: East African Refugee Women,” Africa Today 49: 2 (2002): 29–48.
SSRC, Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum. “FDLR: Past, Present and Policies,” 2014. Available online: http://www.ssrc.org/publications/view/CD664AA5-24B4-E311-93FD-005056AB3675/ [29/2 2016].
Songolo, Aliko. “Marie Beatrice Umutesi’s Truth: The other Rwanda Genocide?” African Studies Review 48: 3 (2005): 107–119.
Umutesi, Marie-Beatrice. Surviving the Slaughter. The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
UN Group of Experts. Final Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. United Nations Security Council, S/2015/19, 2015.
United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1993–2003. Report of the Mapping Exercise Documenting the Most Serious Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Committed within the Territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo between March 1993 and June 2003. Geneva, August 2010.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “UNHCR CDR Background paper on Refugees and Asylum Seekers from Rwanda,” 1 December 1998, available online: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a63f8.html [June 7, 2016].
Volkan, Vamik D. “Transgenerational Transmissions and Chosen Traumas: An Aspect of Large-Group Identity.” Group Analysis 34: 1 (2001): 79–97.
Volkan, Vamik D. Third Reich in the Unconsciousness: Transgenerational Transmission and Its Consequences. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2002.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hedlund, A. (2018). “We Are Not Part of Their War”: Hutu Women’s Experiences of Rebel Life in the Eastern DRC Conflict. In: Connellan, M., Fröhlich, C. (eds) A Gendered Lens for Genocide Prevention. Rethinking Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60117-9_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60117-9_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-60116-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-60117-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)