Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Rwandan refugees in Congo on the brink of extermination

By Free-Thinker

In 1996 and 1998 the Rwandan army invaded Congo in order to hunt down Rwandan refugees in eastern Congo and/or force some of them to return back to Rwanda.

The international community quickly embraced RPF propaganda aimed at demonizing Rwandan refugees in Congo. As a result, up to date, Rwandan refugees in Congo are mistakenly labeled as either Interahamwe and/or ex-FAR or simply FDLR rebels.

Most of the FDLR combattants are young adults ranging between 20-25 years old. Obviously, 15 years ago i.e. during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, most of the FDLR combattants were children ranging between 5-10 years old.

It is also important to keep in mind that in 1996 following the first invasion of Congo by Rwanda, the majority of Rwandan refugees were not repatriated to Rwanda.

It is estimated that at most 450,000 Rwandan refugees returned back to their homeland, compared to 1,103,000 Rwandan refugees who were in Congo at that time.

Most of the returnees came from Mugunga and Kibumba refugee camps and the total number ranges between 300,000 and 400,000 refugees.

Given the strategic nature of their repatriation, the media from all over the world were invited to report this unprecedented "massive repatriation" but also shield RPF killing of refugees and divert the international community from sending in Congo an UN peacekeeping force.

Therefore, most of the Rwandan refugees currently in Congo are neither FDLR rebels, nor Interahamwe, or ex-FAR. For nearly 15 years they have been peacefully leaving with the Congolese people and some of them are now integrated into the Congolese society through inter-marriage alliances with the ordinary Congolese people.

It is widely known that the FDLR number one priority is to defend the Rwandan refugees on the Congolese soil against RPF sinister plan in Congo until their unconditional safe and voluntary return to Rwanda in dignity.

When Rwandan refugees fled to Congo in 1994, RPF continued to track them across the border, destroyed the UN refugee camps in Congo and massacred them. It also chased survivors of these massacres through out the equatorial forest and massacred them. Even to this very day, the RPF is still killing Rwandan refugees in Congo.

In the process of Rwanda's invasion of Congo, millions of Rwandan refugees were killed and most of them were innocent civilians, children, women and elderly. Yet until now the international community has never denounced these atrocities.

Western donors who supply 70 per cent of Rwanda's budget, barely murmure, nor do they baulk when Kagame locks up his opponents, assassinates or slaughters people he's supposed to protect.

Even as we speak, Rwandan refugees in Congo are upset with the international community failing to defend them. That's why the FDLR's obligation is to stand ready to defend these refugees yet on the Congolese soil where the same evil of the past has once again come upon them.

More than 3,500,000 Hutu refugees have been killed upon RPF taking power in Kigali but this death toll has never convinced the UN Security Council about the need for the protection of survivors of these war crimes.

Some of these post-genocide killings of Rwandan refugees include but are not limitted to: massacres that took place in internally displaced refugee camps of Nyacyonga and Kibeho, massacres in UN refugee camps in Congo such as Inera, Mugunga, Green Lake, Kibumba, Katale, Kahindo, Masisi, Tingi-Tingi, and Ubundu, and massacres in Kisangani and Mbandaka.

It is the duty of ALL survivors to speak up and out for the voiceless Rwandan refugees in Congo who survived these mass-slaughters and are now on the brink of being exterminated by the same strenuous enomy now under the umbrella of the ongoing joint operation between the armies of Rwanda and Congo "officially" aimed at uprooting the FDLR in eastern Congo .

Survivors of the RPF atrocities in both Rwanda and Congo should not let anyone fool them. RPF soldiers have a strong record of viewing any Rwandan refugee in Congo as a military target.

Obviously, everybody knows the truth, but everybody keeps silent. And the refugees continue to die, women and children first.

Source:
Survivors Networks

Related articles:
While World Watches Washington, Rwandan Troops Enter Congo

Goma/Bukavu: Testimony of a direct eye witness, January 1997

Surviving the Rwandan Genocide: An Interview with Jean-Christophe Nizeyimana. -- by David Barouski

Civil Wars in Congo -- by Christopher Black

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 7:00 PM