Organization For Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc.
Organisation Pour la Paix, la Justice et le Développement au Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc
Honorable CDE Didymus M. Mutasa Minister of Lands, Land reform and Resettlement, Republic of Zimbabwe Block 2 Makombe Complex Cnr Harare Street and Herbert Chitepo, PB 7779 Causeway, Corner Harare Street and Herbet Chitepo, Harare, Zimbabwe
May 10, 2010 N° 22/JIR/PK/510
Ref.: Threats on Refugees from Rwanda by UNHCR representative in Zimbabwe Honorable, The Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda and in the Great Lakes Region of Africa (OPJDR), Inc., an apolitical Human Rights Organization based in the United States, expresses its gratitude to the Government and the people of Zimbabwe to have welcomed several hundreds of Rwandans who sought refuge in your country in the aftermath of 1994 genocide that claimed so many lives since 1990 up to this day. Refugees from Rwanda have been allowed to live and work in harmony with local population of Zimbabwe for more than 15 years now. However, in the last few months, Rwandans who are resettled in your country start to be seriously concerned by the behaviors of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Protective Officer, Mr. Levi who is threatening them for potential deportation to Rwanda. The objective of this letter is to request to the Government and the people of Zimbabwe to keep providing hospitality to these refugees as the current situation on the ground in Rwanda does not allow them a safe return. Below is a non exhaustive list of conditions that prevent refugees from Rwanda to go back home, especially given the latest human rights violation records and political tensions prevailing in the country. In March 2009, Rwanda, Uganda and UNHCR agreed to target July 31, 2009 as a cut off date to repatriate some 30,000 Rwandans refugees in Uganda. This repatriation program was assorted with serious threats such that free transportation will not be guaranteed after July 31, 2009 and that UNHCR assistance will cease after the deadline. Despite these threats, few refugees volunteered to board UNHCR trucks and only 3,000 returned home by the deadline. That was not the end of story because several people among those repatriated were back in
OPJDR • BP 3026 • Manchester, NH • 03105 / PHONE: (603) 361-6473 www.opjdr.org. OPJDR is non-profit and apolitical. Its mission is to promote the respect of human rights and Cultural, educational, and economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
Organization For Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc.
Organisation Pour la Paix, la Justice et le Développement au Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc
Uganda by the year end, fleeing for their security. In fact, unscrupulous people backed by the authorities in Rwanda government, use the Gacaca courts that aimed to trail genocide suspects, to amass properties of those who fled the country. When the latter returns, they would be falsely accused of genocide and put in jail to prevent them to claim their houses and lands. On May 7, 2010, the Ugandan newspaper, NEW VISION, reported that during the months of March and April 2010 more than 1,300 fled Rwanda to Uganda. Among these refugees, 70 families have been repatriated last year. They claim that their relatives were kidnapped by government security officials while others were arrested and detained in unreachable places because they were suspected to support opposition parties. On the same token, the pro-government daily newspaper The New Times reported that entire families are just vanishing during the night, especially in Southern part of Rwanda for unknown destinations. In recent months, two high ranking officials fled the country citing real threats on their lives from the regime. On February 26, 2010, Lieutenant General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, High Commissioner in India and once Army Chief-of-Staff fled Rwanda to seek refuge in South Africa, while Mr. Jean Pierre Bizimana, Ambassador of Rwanda in Netherland, fled the country for an European country just a week earlier. On April 20, 2010, General Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, former deputy commander of the United Nations - African Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and. Lt. General Charles Muhire, former Air Force Chief and then Minister of Reserve Forces, were sacked and arrested officially for serious offenses. The arrests and flights of high ranking officers who were members of an exclusive circle around President Kagame are to inspire legitimate fear among the population and especially among potential returnees. In fact, these arrests occur weeks after a series of grenade explosions hit Kigali, the capital city, claiming lives and injuring a score of others. In addition, the fear among the Rwandan refugee community to go back home is not a mere fact. The recent declarations of the President of Rwanda, Major General Paul Kagame, are
OPJDR • BP 3026 • Manchester, NH • 03105 / PHONE: (603) 361-6473 www.opjdr.org. OPJDR is non-profit and apolitical. Its mission is to promote the respect of human rights and Cultural, educational, and economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
Organization For Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc.
Organisation Pour la Paix, la Justice et le Développement au Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc
not in nature to incite any refugee to return in the homeland anytime soon when they come from the head of state. On April 7, 2007 during the 13th Commemoration of genocide held in Murambi, in Southern Province, President Kagame stated that “those who escaped from us and crossed borders, and who are currently returning back and we are welcoming them as Rwandans, what pains me is that we did not have the time to prevent them from getting to their destination. I confess this publicly, it really pains me very often.” ● On April 13, 2010 when officiating the swearing in ceremony of the new Minister of Defense and military chiefs of Rwanda Defense Forces, President Paul Kagame acknowledged personally to have killed score of Hutu refugees when the RPF army dismantled refugee camps in the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) starting in 1996. ● During the same ceremonies on April 13, 2010, President Kagame said again that those who have fled the country are like excrement and human waste, meaning that he does not want them back, as nobody will welcome his/her excrement. ● On April 30, 2010, The New York Times reported that the government opens camps, the Gulags style, on an outpost on Iwawa Island in the middle of Kivu Lake. People are being rounded up across the country and sent to these camps for obscure reasons. Rwandans who are willing to talk about it, label the Island as the destination of non-return. Meanwhile the government of Rwanda does not come clear on its motives. OPJDR fears that once refugees return to Rwanda, they will end up in the camps without any perspective of return. Figure 1 gives a snapshot of the camp and its population.
OPJDR • BP 3026 • Manchester, NH • 03105 / PHONE: (603) 361-6473 www.opjdr.org. OPJDR is non-profit and apolitical. Its mission is to promote the respect of human rights and Cultural, educational, and economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
Organization For Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc.
Organisation Pour la Paix, la Justice et le Développement au Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc
Fig.1. Iwawa Island, Kivu Lake, April 30, 2010 In overall, most of the Rwandans in Zimbabwe have travelled thousands of miles to escape conflicts and death. Their reason for leaving their homeland is still there and most of them still have the stigma of the conflict and the sole idea to return in the hands of those who haunted them down is like a death sentence. Therefore OPJDR pleads to the goodwill of the government of Zimbabwe, with the support of the UNHCR, to continue to provide protection for these voiceless Rwandan refugees as they are vulnerable people until the conditions on the ground are safe enough to allow them return in their motherland.
Sincerely Pascal Kalinganire General Coordinator
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OPJDR • BP 3026 • Manchester, NH • 03105 / PHONE: (603) 361-6473 www.opjdr.org. OPJDR is non-profit and apolitical. Its mission is to promote the respect of human rights and Cultural, educational, and economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
Organization For Peace Justice and Development in Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc.
Organisation Pour la Paix, la Justice et le Développement au Rwanda, (OPJDR) Inc
Honorable Mr. António Guterres United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt Suisse. Honorable Mr Hepie Marcellin UNHCR Legal Representative in Harare, 67-69 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, Takura House, P.O. Box 4565 Harare, Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
OPJDR • BP 3026 • Manchester, NH • 03105 / PHONE: (603) 361-6473 www.opjdr.org. OPJDR is non-profit and apolitical. Its mission is to promote the respect of human rights and Cultural, educational, and economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
