Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR)

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Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR)

The Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR) also operates as, or is known as, Interahamwe, Former Armed Forces (ex-FAR).

The FAR was the army of the Rwandan Hutu regime that carried out the genocide of 500,000 or more Tutsis and regime opponents in 1994. The Interahamwe was the civilian militia force that carried out much of the killing. The groups merged and recruited additional fighters after they were forced from Rwanda into the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) in 1994. They are now often known as the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR), which is the armed branch of the PALIR or Party for the Liberation of Rwanda. The group seeks to topple Rwanda's Tutsi-dominated government, reinstitute Hutu-control, and, possibly, complete the genocide. In 1996, a message allegedly from the ALIR threatened to kill the United States ambassador to Rwanda and other U.S. citizens. In 1999, ALIR guerrillas, critical of alleged U.S.-U.K. support for the Rwandan regime, kidnapped and killed eight foreign tourists including two U.S. citizens in a game park on the Congo-Uganda border. In the current Congolese war, the ALIR is allied with Kinshasa against the Rwandan invaders. Several thousand ALIR regular forces operate alongside the Congolese army on the front lines of the Congo civil war, while a like number of ALIR guerrillas operates behind Rwandan lines in eastern Congo closer to the Rwandan border and sometimes within Rwanda.

FAR generally operates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, but has operated in Burundi. The Democratic Republic of the Congo provides ALIR forces in Congo with training, arms, and supplies.

█ FURTHER READING:

ELECTRONIC:

CDI (Center for Defense Information), Terrorism Project. CDI Fact Sheet: Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. March 27, 2003. <http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/terrorist.cfm> (April 17, 2003).

Central Intelligence Agency. World Factbook, 2002. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/> (April 16, 2003).

Taylor, Francis X. U.S. Department of State. "Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001," Annual Report: On the record briefing. May 21, 2002 <http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/rm/10367.htm> (April 17,2003).

U.S. Department of State. Annual reports. <http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/annual_reports.html> (April 16, 2003).