Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – What is happening in North Kivu, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where since January there has been a Congolese-Rwandan joint military operation underway, to disarm and repatriate the hutu Rwandan militias? The missionary network “Peace for Congo” sent a detailed report to Agenzia Fides, in which they say that the operations underway are taking place “amidst almost complete silence, at times interrupted by information released nearly always by bulletins of the Rwanda-Congo Coalition.”
The missionaries say that thousands of refugees have returned to Rwanda. They are mainly people who were taking refuge in the then Zaire, after the genocide of 1994. Among the refugees were several people involved in the killings, however others were their family members or people who fled for fear of being victims of another revolt. In the refugee camps, guerrilla groups were formed that for years have contributed to the instability of North and South Kivu.
Following the accords made at the beginning of the year between Rwanda and the DRC, former rebel general Laurent Nkunda, who has been for a year and a half instigating the war in North Kivu, was arrested in Rwanda and held under house arrest in Gisenyi, while Kigali sent troops to North Kivu to capture the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR, the main group of Rwandan hutu militia active in the area).
“No one knows what is really going on at the front. No independent journalist is saying anything, and neither is there information in the Rwandan-Congolese bulletins, or information from the sources that side with the Congolese President,” the missionaries say, questioning the real purpose of these operations. “If they wanted to make all the refugees return to their country, they would have made them go towards the border. However, the reverse is happening and they are being pushed inwards, deeper into Congo. Are they confronted there? Are they killed? As there are no testimonies, who knows? The FDLR are well-armed and know the forest like the back of their hand; their assailants are also well-armed and their behavior in the past has shown a great facility in killing others, including civilians.”
In any case, the missionaries have collected testimonies of the re-entry of thousands of hutu civilians in Rwanda: “several thousand civilians have already crossed the border, but of the repatriated FDLR, only a handful.”
The refugees pass by transitional camps, where each family is given a first aid kit from the UNHCR, and then returned to their place of origin. “Often they may find their house already occupied. In these years in Rwanda, the 'custom' is that of inhabiting an abandoned home, if your own had been destroyed. President Kagame has declared that these houses be restored to the refugees that return. In some cases, after 15 years of being abandoned, the roof, windows, and doors have all been taken away,” the missionaries wrote.
The Congolese people see the return of the Rwandan refugees positively, but also with compassion. They welcomed both the tutsi and hutu people, according to the political changes in Rwanda, however they have inevitably had to suffer the results of conflicts that did not concern them. Since 1996, they have suffered greatly because of the wars that have claimed the lives of over 5 million people. In Bushi, they have witnessed the violent attacks on villages carried out by Rasta militias, hutus and Congolese bandits who killed people, kidnapped others in order to demand a ransom, raped women, and even young girls. “The Congolese people also fear for the fate of the refugees returning to Rwanda and ask that the international community that led DRC and Burundi to an internal dialogue, do the same for Rwanda. As for the importance of raw materials in Europe (the real cause of the war in the area), the missionaries said: “It is time for justice to enter into international affairs, because injustice is always stained with the blood of innocents.” (LM) (Agenzia Fides 24/02/2009)
