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RALLY FOR THE RETURN OF | |
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4, RUE A. CLUYSENAAR 1060 BRUXELLES BELGIQUE Tél: 32-2-5348035 Fax: 32-2-5348053 |
7, RESIDENCE MONTESQUIEU 49000 ANGERS FRANCE Tél/Fax: 33-41489987 |
December 14, 1996
Since early October 1996, rwandese refugees are going through the most trying moment of their life.
In Zaïre, they are falling victims to a combined Uganda-Rwanda-Burundi invasion of Eastern Zaïre, aimed at securing a buffer zone along their common border with Zaïre. It is an open secret that the Banyamurenge rebels are mere puppets to achieve that aim.
In Tanzania, they are victims of what the London based Amnesty International rightly called in its release of December 9, 1996, "an international cooperation in forcing refugees back home".
In Uganda the most hostile country to Hutu refugees by all standards, RPF operatives strike on refugees at will. RPA officers seem to have extra-territorial powers of arrests in Uganda. During the last three weeks only 30 refugees in transit through the country have been rounded up. After being briefly held in a military barracks they were deported to Rwanda.
At the same time 11 trailers and lorries belonging to rwandese refugee businessmen were intercepted in Uganda and handed over to RPF. Efforts to claim them have proved so far futile as this seem to be part of a long term design to suffocate economically refugees.
The UN having been struck in endless debates over sending a multinational force due to the delaying manoeuvres of the USA, the refugees are placing their last hope in a regional initiative in averting another human disaster.
Soon after the dismantling of Mugumga camp in November 1996, the number of remaining refugees in Eastern Zaïre became a political stake, Kigali categorically starting that all of them has crossed back, while some countries and NGOs were putting their number at a ridiculously low lever (± 100.000), just to prove that the deployment of the international force was no longer relevant.
Nevertheless, empirical evidence shows that the number of refugees remaining in Eastern Zaïre is over half a million.
(a) Political manipulation of figures
A news bulletin of the UNHCR of june 1996, estimated the number of refugees in Eastern Zaïre to around 1.100.000 :
UVIRA 71.828
BUKAVU 316.348
GOMA 715.991
These figures only took into account refugees officially registered by UNHCR and who receive food rations. Today RPF, its sponsors and lobby groups indicate that 500.000 refugees have already entered Rwanda, that there are no more refugees in eastern Zaïre and hence the futility of any programme of assistance to refugees in Zaïre. If this were to be the truth, this would imply that Rwandese Patriotic Army and their puppet tutsi militia have already massacred 600.000 refugees with in the past two months.
If they have not been killed, the intention would be to leave deliberately that number of refugees die of hunger, diseases and vagaries of weather. Indeed in timing the attack at this time, planners in Kigali, Bujumbura and Kampala and their foreign backers knew very well that it was a cholera season in Zaïre and that there was little food until the next harvest season in January.
The debate on the numbers of people in Zaïre clearly shows that there is a hidden agenda, for it is difficult to imagine that the simple arithmetic of subtracting 500.000 from 1.100.000 would have failed policy makers in the most advanced countries.
That the suffering of 600.000 refugees who include mostly women, children and the elderly fails to ring a bell in the conscience of governments and political circles is another proof of their hidden interests or complicity in the tragedy that has engulfed the entire Central African region.
(b) Time wasting debate on an international intervention
in Eastern Zaïre.
When it became clear that RPF soldiers and their puppets were deliberately targeting refugee camps instead of Zairean military targets, some peace loving countries, organisations and personalities called for a foreign intervention for the protection refugee camps and the resumption of humanitarian operations.
On November 15, 1996, the UN security Council passed a resolution nº 1080 (1996) authorising the deployment of an multinational force in Eastern Zaïre.
One month later, the initiative is still bogged down by political manoeuvring, and endless discussions over its relevancy.
The USA and Canada, that had yet offered to lead the force, have repeatedly questioned the mission, going to the extent of saying that it should be scrapped.
Others countries have conditioned their participation to the green light of RPF government, yet the force was supposed to be deployed on Zairean territory and not Rwanda. How could one seek the approval of RPF knowing very well that it is behind the crisis? It is on record that in 1995, RPF government blocked 20 lorries of WFP loaded with relief supplies to refugees, saying that the food war meant for "criminals".
So far the Entebbe based mission has made just reconnaissance flights, which have made nothing but to traumatize refugee.
The aerial reconnaissance flights are inefficient and just time wasting operations. Beside due to the role played by Uganda which hosts the headquarters of the mission, in the rebellion in Eastern Zaïre, refugees fear that some of the satellite and aerial photograph may land in the hands of RPF and its proxies the Banyamulenge tutsi rebels who would use them to hit refugees.
So at any sight of a flying object, refugees go under ground to avoid being detected.
(c) The relevancy of an intervention force
In authorising the deployment of an international force in Eastern Zaïre, the UN had considered the continuing deteriorating security situation in Eastern Zaïre.
The security Council had also, considered its obligation to ensure the respect of relevant provisions of international humanitarian law with regard to the protection of refugees as well as a call by the Nairobi summit of November 5, 1996.
Today, there is over half a million refugees, in dire need of assistance, who have gone for nearly 2 months, without any help.
Seating on the fence and leaving them to die, would amount to condoning what the UN Secretary Mr Boutros Boutros Ghali rightly called the" genocide by starvation".
So long as the UN Security Council resolution 1080(1996) still stands, no single country however powerful, or individual should veto its implementation. It is the credibility of the United Nations that is at stake.
According to the latest information, more than 90% of the remaining refugees have managed to cross into the government controlled areas especially around LUBUTU, WALIKALE , KISANGANI and MASISI West.
All these areas can be reached from Kinshasa, thereby rendering the green light of RPF and ADFL (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaïre) irrelevant.
Why shouldn't the mission shift its headquarters, and operate from Kinshasa and not Uganda seen as a party to the crisis.
(a) Attacks on refugee camps.
Many people have laboured to convince the world that the rebellion in Eastern Zaïre by Rwanda backed Banyamurenge, was a legitimate move for the latter to express their anger upon the denial of their zairean citizenship.
This view was among others defended by former Tanzanian President, H.E Julius NYERERE, in his December 5, 1996 address at a roundtable organised in New-York USA by the International Peace Academy.
This highly questionable stand has been used as a smoke screen, to cover the most horrendous atrocities against rwandese refugees. Here below are some or the most atrocious incidents.
- Early October 1996 the Banyamurenge rebels backed by RPA soldiers stormed the hospital of Remera and selectively killed Hutu refugees and staff numbering 15 ;
- On around 26th October 1996, RPA soldiers who overrun the town of BUKAVU killed 30 rwandese refugees and kidnapped 20 others whose fate is yet to be known;
- On 26th October 1996, RPA soldiers shelled and eventually assaulted the camp of Kibumba, killing 500 refugees and sending the rest in disarray ;
- On 27th October 1996, a combined force of RPA, Uganda troops and Bangilima-Mayi-Mayi attacked the camps of Katale and Kahindo, savagely killing over 150 refugees and throwing the rest on the roads to GOMA ;
- On 30th October 1996, RPA soldiers stormed a health Centre in Bukavu and killed all the refugee staff;
- On 21st November 1996, 30 bodies of children and women refugees were found at BUSHWERA , near Kabare centre;
- On November 22, 1996 RPA soldiers and their Banyamurenge proxies surrounded the camp of CIMANGA- South Kivu where women and children who could no longer run, had taken shelter. After deceiving them that they wanted to give them food all the refugees gathered together. Once the had assembled, they were mercilessly sprayed with bullets.
A zairean priest, vicar of the nearby catholic parish who pleaded with the assailants to spare children, was also shot dead. After the carnage, zairean villagers recovered 417 bodies in a mass grave.
- Local villagers who returned home recently declared that they had discovered mass graves believed to be of refugee victims at GATUMBA, at KALUNDU port, at MAENDELEO market near KALIMABENGE, at the out post of Mulongwe Parish, at Zawadi Institute all of them in Uvira town.
This in notwithstanding the bodies, that were found floating on Rusizi River and Tanganyika Lake.
(b) Attempts to cover up atrocities.
On 16th November 1996, the rwandese Embassy in Pretoria issued a statement, praising Banyamurenge rebels, for having succeed where the international Community had failed "
The release widely covered by the media and which was the first public acknowledgement of the attack on refugees by RPF backed rebels, defended the rebels action by the need to separate "refugees from militiamen who were keeping them as hostages".
To date, nobody has condemned this provocative and barbaric language.
Other people blamed the wanton killings of refugees on the war situation, arguing that nothing could be done about an irresponsible rebel.
Regarding the separation of so called innocent and intimidators(militiamen of former FAR soldiers), refugee camps were UN protected areas and any attack on those camps should have been unconditionally condemned.
If ever the UNHCR or anybody else for that matter had deemed it necessary to weed out "unwanted" elements from refugee camps, it should have been done in an orderly manner, by UNHCR security personnel.
It was none of the rebels business to take over the duty of UNHCR.
Besides, their stated objective was to take power in Kinshasa, not to overrun camps. If anything, this obsession against refugees should be seen as enough proof for their allegiance to the RPF government.
Regarding the excuse of war, rebels are not immune from prosecution, when they violate international legal instruments. The Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time of war of 12 August in 1949, as well as its Protocol additional relating to the Protection of victims of International Armed conflicts, have been grossly abused by AFDL forces and their Uganda, burundian and rwandan backers.
Why shouldn't they be held responsible and be punished accordingly ?
(c) Refoulement of refugees from Tanzania.
The Tanzanian government decision to forcefully repatriate rwandese refugee in what is seen as an international conspiracy against Hutu refugees, is a departure from all existing legal provisions. Even in case where this provision has been violated, UNHCR has endeavoured to identify refugees who may be at risk of victimisation in their country of origin and then plead for them.
Overlooking individuals' well founded fears of return without giving them a chance to have their case examined is a violation of the fundamental "principle of non-refoulement" enshrined in the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 july 1951, the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees of 31 January 1967 ; the OAU Convention of 10 September 1969 governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, as well as the Principles concerning Treatment of Refugees as adopted by the Asian-African legal Consultative Committee at its right session 1996, all of which Tanzania is a party to.
Therefore, as Amnesty International said, the decision by the Tanzanian government to expel rwandese refugees to an uncertain fate in Rwanda disregards the basic human rights of refugees and Tanzanian's commitments under international law.
As for the UNHCR endorsement or rubber stamping of this decision by Tanzania, it contravenes its own basic principles of protecting refugees.
The rwandese crisis is political by nature, and calls therefore for a political solution.
The present rwandese refugees crisis started way back in 1990, and not in 1994 as some people may think.
Indeed, people started feeing in October 1990, after the RPF invasion and by February 1993, there was 1 million displaced people in the camps of NYACYONGA in the outskirts of Kigali. With the RPF military take-over, the phenomenon of collective demonisation exacerbated the crisis, with over 2.000.000 people crossing into neighbouring countries. If some have ever since returned home, others have continuously left the country.
It is therefore absolutely irrelevant and useless to try to isolate the refugee problem from the political background that gave rise to it.
(a) Attempts to muzzle refugees
The issue of intimidation has been used as a magic word by the RPF government and the UNHCR and some political fora, especially the Carter Peace Initiative, to scare refugees from claiming their inalienable rights. Anybody who dares criticise UNHCR programs or talk about the well known human rights situation in Rwanda is branded as "intimidator", a crime that can land somebody in any trouble without arousing any concern.
Whereas all international legal instruments pertaining to the protection of refugees prohibit the latter from engaging in subversive activities, no single instruments prohibits them from claiming their rights, including political ones. In this framework, art 15 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, provides for the " right of association ", so long as it is non-political and non profit making.
Similarly, art 19 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of December 16, 1996, states that "Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions with out interference. Art 19 (2) goes on to say that "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression : this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information, ideas of all kind, regardless of frontiers either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or though any other media of his choice", provided it is in conformity with art 19(3).
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which does not exclude refugees from its area of competence, provides for the same rights.
Why should rwandese refugees be ostracised and branded as intimidators, Hutu extremist or militiamen, any time they exercise those rights ?
Why should they be denied the right to asylum as proved for in art 14 of the Human Rights declaration ?
Why shouldn't they be subjected to all sorts of harassment just to safeguard the status quo in Kigali ?
In order to break the circle of violence that threaten the whole sub-region, RDR welcomes the ides of an International Conference on Peace, Security and Development in the great Lakes region whose idea has been endorsed in Resolution 1080 (1996) of the security council.
This conference should be opened to all interested parties without exception, and should comprehensively address all the problems that face the sub region including the issue of governance, the nature of the security services, as well as the respect of national borders.
(b) Reluctance to go home.
With all the harassment of refugees in camps in eastern Zaïre and in northern
Tanzanie, what it is quite legitimate to ask oneself what is behind the reluctancy of refugees to go home ?
The main concern and source of fear of refugees is their safety and dignity once they return to a country where there is no rule of law, where the judicial system is not working, and where people do not enjoy their civil and political rights as enshrined in international conventions.
In their cheap propaganda, RPF government, and some of its backers, notably the USA and Holland have repeatedly blamed so called intimidators, for the stalemate.
With over 100.000 prisoners who have been languishing in jail for 2 years without charge, with a judicial system that has not tried a single case for the last 2 years, the Rwandese judicial system is unmistakably the worse in the world.
As if to compound further the situation, the rwandese government has just released another list of 1900 people to be arrested over charge of genocide planning and to be hanged in case they are found guilty by local court, according the Director General in the Ministry of Justice.
The list amalgamates political or administrative post held by people with the charge of genocide.
In practical terms, none of former politicians, senior military and administrative officers, clergymen, intellectuals and prominent businessmen should escape RPF nets.
Given the line up of magistrates, no one would acquitted if indicted in RPF courts.
Besides, contrary to reports by UNHCR, the reintegration of refugees recently kicked out of Zaïre, is still a headache. People are yet to recover their property and are still in camps in MUTURA, at RUYENZI, GITICYINYONI and REMERA in the outskirts of Kigali and in KIBUNGO.
Some had found the situation so trying that they had already crossed into Tanzania.
For the specific case of refugees currently being thrown out of Tanzania, moat of them hail from the prefectures of Byumba and Kibungo. Most of the area having been turn into Tutsilands, refugees are reluctant to return home for fear of victimisation by those squattering their properties.
A number of other returnees have either been killed, disappeared or arbitrary arrested as was the case early this year during the forced repatriation from Burundi, upon which over 1000 arrests were made according to A.I.
There is also uncertainty over the future of the country, as the democratisation of the institutions is no longer on the agenda of the RPF government, and the institution of a national army, a foregone case.
This is what discourage refugees from going home. The so called intimidation is just a smoke screen to blind fold people, and divert their attention from the real issues.
(a) In Zaïre
There is still an urgent need to deploy an international humanitarian force to assist the survivors of the "genocide by starvation".
The base of the mission should be shifted from Entebbe to Kinshasa, because not only Uganda is widely seen as a party to the refugee crisis, but also because most of all the needy refugees are now in the government controlled areas.
(b) Tanzania
Pursuant to its well known policy of panafricanism and humanity, the Tanzanian government should resist foreign pressure to drive refugees back home at gun point.
Tanzania should rather help in finding a lasting political solution to the refugee crisis, as it had done for former refugees of 1959 during the ill fated Arusha Negotiations.
(c) Uganda
The Ugandan government should respect the right to private property and return all the property of rwandan refugees impounded while closing its territory.
(d) Miscellaneous
The Summit should support the convening of an international conference on peace and development in the Great Lakes region, as per resolution 1080(1996) of the UN Security Council.The summit should also reaffirm the right of asylum as enshrined in international conventions.
For RDR
NZABANDORA Chris
Spokesman