November 22,1996

PRESS RELEASE Nº107

Available information put the number of refugees killed by the Rwandese Patriotic Army since the outbreak of the war in Eastern Zaïre at over 6400, and this is yet a very conservative figure beacause the head count is still going on.

The biggest number of casualities is in the area of Bukavu, where RPA entered with a list of over 1000 former politicians, intellectuels and members of various refugee organisations as well as churchmen to be killed and very few managed to escape.

It took two whole weeks to dispose off the bodies and this explains why for all this time the area was out of bound, whereas normally rebels are proud of taking foreign journalists to tour areas under their control immediately they secure them.

Some bodies were incinerated, others taken back to Nyungwe forest in Rwanda, while others were burried in mass graves now disguised as security zones.

On top of these casualities, a number of other prominent refugees have been taken alive accross to Rwanda and are feared dead. A comprehensive list is still being compiled.

After the dismantling of the camps, RPA soldiers pursued the fleeing refugees and those whose legs could not take them fast enough were cought and killed. This is on top of the de facto relief embargo imposed on them.

When the RPF minister of foreign affairs dared declare that there was no more refugee in Zaïre, he actuelly thought that the plan had so successfully been carried out that they could indeed be no more survivor.

RDR calls upon human rights organisations, humanitarian agencies and countries that still have a sense of humanity, to ask for an international commission of enquiry into these atrocities.

Failing to do so will be tantamount to giving RPF the impression that it is above the law.

The rebellious situation in Eastern Zaïre whose architect is none other than RPF, should be no excuse to cover such atrocities and shield it from punishment.

The Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, gives enough provisions for prosecuting RPF government and its proxies.

Besides, in order to avoid further loss of lives, RDR recomands that all returnees be recorded by the ICRC to ensure that none of them dissapears without trace.

RDR uses the same opportunity to condem in the strongest terms recent statement by the strong man of Kigali, major general Kagame Paul, opposing the return of refugee properties on the ground that the curreent squatters , some of whom went in exile in the sixties, saw their own properties destroyed in 1994 and have no where to go!

Consequently, RDR reiterates that there is still a lot of work for an international intervention both in Eastern Zaïre where over 600000 refugees are still stuck in the wildness and inside Rwanda to avoid more blood letting.

Everything should be done to refrain RPF government from carrying out its policy of what major general Kagame called one day spoo "emptying a drum of water with a tea spoon".

The international community will never be forgiven if it fails to act now because tommorow will be too late.