February 14, 1996

The confusion sourounding the immediate closure of the rwandese refugee camps of Kibumba and Kashusha in Zaire is perturbing and unveils the extent of prejudices around the refugee crisis.

The hidden idea behind the whole exercise is that refugees have no ground of fear and should be kicked out of camps and handed over to the very RPF government they had fled.

Despite conflicting statements by UNHCR officials, the closure of the two camps was agreed upon between Zairean authorities and UNHCR officials during a meeting in Kinshasa, and is part and parcel of the famous UNHCR document Ref ( see paragraph )whose authenticity had been vehemently denied by the latter, because it had leaked out prematurely.

The nerve breaking operation consisting of making the camp untenable by sealing off the camp and curtailing the activities of refugees, is intended to reduce the number of refugees by at least 50% within two weeks.

Those activities include the very ones that were meant to supplement the rations of refugees drastically reduced over the past months.

Some of the essential community services normally provided by humanitarian organisations may be scaled down as well during the operation, in order to make the life in camp deteriote further.

Ironically, according to UNHCR officials, this unprecedented repatriation will still be called " voluntary "!!!

Rwandese refugees are very much aware of the intense pressure being exerted on UNHCR by its donors in order to get rid of rwadese refugees at the earliest opportunity, although the latter may deny it.

Indeed, some of those donors are the very financial backers of RPF government, whose legitimacy is seriously eroded by the refugee crisis.

The slow response of the traditional contributors to the latest UNHCR appeal for more funds in favour of rwandese refugees, is an indication of this resolve to get rid of them.

Yet RPF government gets so easly money to build more prisons and modernise its monolithic army.

Rwandes refugees may represent a huge financial burden for the international community, but forcing them to return home is applying the wrong medecine at the wrong place.

Indeed, refugees are not the cause of the current political deadlock in Rwanda, they are the victims and a manifestation of bad leadership, compounded by military adventurism of some people.

For RDR

Mr Chris NZABANDORA

Director of Information