Tito Rutaremara on why war was the only option to liberate Rwanda, why the journey continues today

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Several efforts had been made for Rwandans who had been persecuted and forced into exile since 1959, to return home peacefully but the governments at the time, particularly that of Juvenal Habyarimana, were adamant. Negotiations did not yield anything.
“Rwanda is small and full. There is no room for people who are outside,” Habyarimana often argued in meetings or retorted when told by leaders who tried to persuade him to allow refugees to return home, as signs of impatience began to show.
On several occasions, he was warned that soon, the exiles might return by force. Perhaps those who were not there at the time, especially the young generations, might wonder why men and women had to pick up guns to fight their way back home, yet other peaceful options would have worked.
Tito Rutaremara, one of the senior politicians in RPF Inkotanyi, who was directly involved in political activities, including the Arusha Peace Talks, says that for nearly three decades, there had been attempts to talk to the governments in Rwanda at the time to allow people to return peacefully.
Born in 1944 in Gatsibo, in what used to be known as Kibungo territory, in the current Eastern Province, Rutaremara’s family fled the country between 1959 and early 1960’s when Tutsis were being persecuted and hounded out of their properties because of who they were.
Rutaremara, who studied primary school in Gatsibo was in his second year of secondary school at St. Andre College when he fled to Uganda, where he completed his high school before partly joining university and later relocating to Europe to complete university education.
“When we became refugees between 1959 and 1967 with our parents, we hoped that we would be coming back to Rwanda soon. In fact, we spent more than five to six years, hoping that we would come back,” recalls Rutaremara.