While the refugees are still waiting for the much talked about multinational force in Eastern Zaire, all the attention is focused on the return of some 250000 refugees from the camps of Mugunga, who were starved to near death before being escorted at gun point towards Goma. The plight of nearly 650000 remaining refugees does not seem to bother the international community and UNHCR does no longer hide its excitement over the effect of starvation on the long awaited repatriation.

On top of delaying the effective deployment of that force, whose mission is primarily humanitarian, the very corners that were at first reluctant to the idea of coming to the rescue of Hutu refugees, are trying to derail it by exhorting it to embark, as a matter of priority to the witch hunting of so called militia and hutu extremists.

This was hinted on by the OAU Secretary General during his interview on BBC Focus on Africa on 14^th November 1996, and by OXFAM, a british NGO, whose sympathy towards RPF government is well known.

The mastermind of this campaign targeted from the very beginning the refugee camp of Mugunga, accused of being a strong hold of resistance to the RPF backed rebels in Eastern Zaïre.

Surprisingly all those who championed this campaign relied solely on reports either by RPF government or by its proxy rebels and none of the journalists who filed such stories had ever crossed the frontline to ascertain who was shelling GOMA town.

The only fact that shells were coming from the "direction" of Mugunga camp in no evidence that it was the work of refugees, because Zairean troops have the liberty to set their artillery in any area of their territory, including Mugunga hills.

Those who incite the international force to witch hunt refugees as a matter of urgency are therefore misadvised because the whole saga in eastern Zaïre was not engineered by refugees, but by those who nurtured for a long time the idea of wiping them out and who proved their barbaric record in the wanton shelling and raids on their camps. Refugees are victims of circumstances, they are not the source of trouble.

With regard to the whole issue of "intimidation" that has been used as a scapegoat to explain the failure of the voluntary repatriation, RDR would like do re-state its position over the same in the refugee crisis.

The dismantling of Mugunga camp provided ammunitions for sadistics to jump to the conclusion that refugees had flocked back to Rwanda because militiamen who were holding them as hostages had run away.

Yet, according to the United Nations IRIN Emergency update nº21 of 13 November 1996, those refugees were so badly off that they were "living on tree roots and rotten potatoes, suffering from dehydration and bloody diarrhoea".

Besides, since Thursday 14^th November 1996, the camp was under intense shelling by RPF soldiers and their proxies and all the escape routes had been cut off.

Knowing what RPF did to their colleagues in Bukavu who tried to escape after the capture of the town, refugees who could not manage to climb the surrounding volcanoes had no other option but to surrender and this is actually what they did. The talks of "intimidators" having run away is just the work of those who are bent on shielding RPF atrocities.

The first international exposure of the issue of intimidation came about during the Cairo conference on the Great Lakes Region held on November 28-29, 1995 under the sponsorship of Carter Center. Under pressure from Uganda and Rwanda who could not explain otherwise the failure of RPF to implement the Nairobi plan of action geared towards facilitating the smooth repatriation of refugees that was agreed upon in Nairobi on 5^th January 1995, and which had been duly endorsed by Rwanda's delegation, the Cairo Declaration called on action(c), for"curtailing the activities of those in the camps who seek to intimidate refugees wishing to return to their homes".

The issue was bought up again in resolution nº5 of the Tunis Declaration of 18^th March 1996 sponsored once again by Carter Center, and in numerous OAU working papers. One would point out here that due to the bias towards RPF and Uganda that has persistently displayed the OAU Secretary General, this institution has never had a balanced view on the whole Hutu refugee crisis.

It is in this framework that RDR which champions the interests of refugees, has been outlawed in Zaïre and Tanzania and is persistently harassed by pro-RPF lobbies worldwide.

In this connection, 7 rwandese refugees were recently deported from Tanzania in total defiance of the law simply because of being members of RDR, and that over 40 others were put behind bars in Zaïre with the blessing of UNHCR since February 1996.

It is therefore over due to highlight the hidden agenda of this campaign and to help those who may have been abused by the same, review their stand and abide by international instruments governing refugees.

Art 12, chap II of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees which entered into force on April 22, 1954, provides that, with regard to the juridical status of refugees, their "personal status shall be governed by the law of the country of his domicile or his residence".

Given the fact that the offense of "intimidation" does not exist in any criminal law of countries accommodating rwandese refugees, how can somebody be punished for a non existing crime? In any case, even if such offense does exist, art 16, of the same convention gives to refugees, "free access to the courts of law on the territory of all contracting states".

Therefore both the deportation of the 7 refugees from Tanzania and the detention without trial of their colleagues in Zaïre was illegal. The tanzanian move was moreover a violation of art 32 of the same legal instrument.

Besides, art 15, chap II of the same Convention stipulates that"as regards non-political and non-profit making associations and trade unions, the contracting States shall accord to refugees lawfully staying in their territory, the most favourable treatment accorded to nationals of a foreign country in the same circumstances"

Both UNHCR and the RPF government have persistently argued that refugees have no right to claim their civil and political rights and doing so has been misconstrued to mean political agitation and intimidation.

But considering that it is in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for any human right, to enjoy his civil and political freedom, rwandese refugees should be no exception. In this respect, on top of art 1,9,10,11,12, 13,19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art 3 of the International covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2200 A(XXI) of 16 December 1966 calls for the States Parties to " ensure equal right to the enjoyment of all civil and political rights".

Art 19 (1, 2) of the same covenant states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference".

... This right shall include the freedom to seek, receive and impart informations and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice".

With regard to the violent dismantling of refugees camps under the excuse of the ongoing war in Eastern Zaïre, RPF army and its proxy forces in Zaïre should under normal rule of law, not go scoff free. Even if the victims are hutu refugees, RPF and their allies should be held responsible for violating article 85 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), adopted on June 1977 by the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law applicable in Armed conflicts.

Instead of rewarding RPF government by throwing out refugees from Zaïre and handing them over to him, justice should follow its course and RPF and its proxies tried for not only what the UN Secretary general rightly called "genocide by starvation", but also for violating all these international instruments of which Rwanda is a signatory.

Instead of politicking over the lives of so many refugees, let the force be immediately deployed because tomorrow may be too late.

As rightly said by the UN Secretary General Mr Boutros Ghali, the duty of that force should be to tackle the humanitarian aspect of the refugee crisis, while the international community is looking for ways of handling the political aspect.