Demobilising Mindsets: Ideas and Ideology after War. A Case Study on Rwandan FDLR Rebels.

Since 2001 several thousand Rwandan FDLR rebels (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda), active in the east of the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), have been demobilised and repatriated to Rwanda. The FDLR rebels that emerged in the year 2000 from the Hutu refugee community in DRC are known to foster a strong "Hutu" ideology, rooted in the ideational tradition of pre-genocide Rwanda. It revolves around ethnic antagonism and emphasizes a deeply pronounced Hutu victimisation by the Tutsi. This ideology stands diametrically opposed to the one the current, Tutsi-dominated RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) government under President Paul Kagame has established and imposed in post-genocide Rwanda. By returning to Rwanda, the FDLR members thus not only cross a national border, but an ideological one as well. Our research aims to understand how demobilised and repatriated FDLR members navigate between these "old" and "new" ideational frameworks at work in Rwanda's past and present. We will study whether, how and why the exposure to the "new" ideology has changed – reversed, weakened or reinforced – "old" ideas, beliefs and mindsets. In this way, we aim to contribute to the academic literature on post-genocide Rwanda from a bottom-up perspective; to push the theoretical understanding of the role of ideology in and after violent conflict; and to develop appropriate research approaches and techniques to study the demobilization of mindsets.

Keywords:RWANDA

Disciplines:Political and legal anthropology, Security, peace and conflict