The Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR) was previously known as the Armed forces of Rwanda (FAR). It was a Hutu ethnic regime that was responsible for the genocide that existed in Rwanda in 1994. The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was a rebel force, formed by the minority of the Tutsi who fled from Rwanda to escape the Hutu government; a large number of them were exiled in Uganda, Congo, Burundi, Tanzania and the rest of the world. The two groups had lived in peace and unity before the coming of the Europeans. The term terrorism can not be fully justified in this context because both groups were fighting for the same cause; they did not want a leader (government) from either ethnic group. They wanted their own leaders. .
Historically, the Hutus and Tutsis have lived in present day Rwanda for the past two thousand years and had previously organized themselves in small groups based on lineage. The shared the same political and philosophical values. The Hutus" and the Tutsis" were pastoralists and they developed a single and highly sophisticated language, Kinya-rwanda, crafted from a common set of religious beliefs and culture.
During the colonization period, Rwanda was colonized by the Germans, and then the Belgians took over. After the Belgians took over the state and they began to re-organize the Rwandan people by forming chief-doms and sub-chief doms, mostly favoring the Tutsi ethnic group who were the minority population (15%). The Belgians considered the Hutus to be inferior because they were the majority population (84%) and looked more Bantu. The Hutus were removed from all kinds of administrative powers and their positions were replaced by the Tutsis. In the education sector the Hutus were not enrolled in schools any more. By assuring a Tutsi monopoly of power, the Belgians set the stage for future conflict in Rwanda. Such was not their intent. They were not implementing a "divide and rule" strategy so much as they were just putting into effect the racists convictions commonly set by the colonial powers .
