|
|
Article: Tragedy in Rwanda: the political ecology of conflict.
- Article from:
- Environment
- Article date:
- April 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The horrible events that took place in Rwanda in 1994 raise serious questions for all observers of Africa in general and Rwanda in particular. The many explanations of the tragedy that have been advanced fall into two basic schools. The first holds up Rwanda, a small, landlocked, predominantly agricultural country with the highest population density in Africa, as a prime example of the disastrous consequences of ecological resource scarcity. It labels the millions of refugees still in Zaire as "environmental refugees" and deems the whole conflict a result of "demographic entrapment".(1) The second attributes the Rwandan genocide exclusively to processes of ethnic identity ...