Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Rwandan Hutu Refugees in DRC: Slaves of the 21st Century

By Virunga Vision
June 1, 2009

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They are still likely to wander and suffer abuses. They will remember forever the cries of these children bartered for food, an unfortunate gesture, but an act that clearly demonstrates a mother’s commitment to unconditional love for her children.

These women are hoping that through the kindness of those who are buying their children, the latter will be more likely to survive than if they were to remain with their mothers who are often tired of the endless stalking or dying from hunger and diseases.

There are still many Rwandan refugees (children and adults) that have been lost in remote areas of the Congolese rainforest. They have been abandoned on their road to Calvary but God has landed them into the arms of many Congolese benefactors.

Without of course any mental or physical intent to harm many Congolese view the presence of Rwandan refugees in DRC as the manna fallen from heaven. With a handful of rice or a few tubers they will have a reliable workforce for life and for free. They will have a daughter or a wife who would cost, according to their tradition, several goats or require gold or diamond.

Adult Rwandan refugees who escaped several RPA massacres through many Congolese benefactors have simply become slaves i.e. the multipurpose machines. On a daily basis they are threatened to either be bartered for a few dollars or be handed over to their strenuous enemies i.e. the APR by a simple denunciation. These refugees are confined into their hiding places and are indefinitely subject to the most degrading tasks.

In addition, Rwandan refugees in DRC have to give up their maternal language, i.e. Kinyarwanda, which has become in DRC, the language of fugitives, the language of notorious killers. In both scenarios, their condemnation is obvious.

Cyotamakara cya Nkarange is an officer of the ex-FAR. Having escaped the carnage of Mbandaka in May 1997, he literally fell into a Congolese family who managed to keep him away from the patrol routes of the APR. He was put to work in farms. In return, he was protected from the risks of being handed over to RPA murderers, until August 1998.

Upon the blurring between Paul Kagame and Laurent Kabila, the ex-FAR soldiers came to the rescue of the Congolese President and patrolled around. Congolese villagers who recognized that the newcomers were not the RPA notorious killers revealed the presence of Cyotamakara cya Nkarange, a Rwandan refugee, who was in hideout.

Despite the determination of the ex-FAR soldiers to rescue their fellow citizen, it took several months before freeing him from his hideout where he lived with great fear, courage and hard work.

With RPA atrocities still alive in his memories, Cyotamakara cya Nkarange himself was constantly begging his masters to not hand him over so that he can survive a few more days.

Promising to double his daily production in farms if he was not denounced as being of Rwandan origin, Cyotamakara cya Nkarange preferred to remain a slave rather than having to endure once similar animosities of the past.

In the end, Cyotamakara cya Nkarange was finally freed by the liberation army mostly owing to the determination of its leadership. Indeed, the leader of the liberation army did everything he could in order to break such a torpor that was meant to keep Cyotamakara cya Nkarange slave forever in DRC. A reunion feast was held on his arrival.

There still are many Rwandan refugees who were not lucky enough to be on the path of their liberators. These refugees and their descendents are condemned to remain slaves in DRC until a liberator passes nearby.

Related Materials:
Mbandaka Terminus: The Path of Rwandan Refugees Mass Graves in Congo

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

Rwanda: Dealing with the reality, achieving common ground, and betting on the future

DRC: Manhunt against innocent civilian populations of North Kivu

UN: The Joint Military Operation Against The FDLR Has Failed

The Real Authors of the Congo Crimes: Nkunda has been arrested but who will arrest Kagame?

Rwanda: Paul Kagame is implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity

The Legacy of The Crematoriums of Rwanda

KBR and The Congo Civil War

KBR and the Rwandan Genocide

Rwanda: The truth according to Congresswoman Cynthia Mc Kinney

Rwanda: Economic Growth Sustained Through Free Labor

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 8:56 AM