Sources in Kisangani confirm that around 10:00am today, a Monusco delegation led by the Head of Monusco in the Oriental Province, DRC entered the refugee transit camp that houses former freedom fighters who have laid down their weapons and their dependents. This delegation that also included Colonel John Peter Marengo Bolalo of the Congolese army demanded to speak to the refugee representatives. After a brief meeting with these representatives, Congolese soldiers arrested these representatives and took them in the same detention center where they are holding those who were previously abducted from Walungu and Kanyabayonga under similar circumstances. Among those abducted today are: Former Major Faustin Mugisha, Former Major Joseph Birindiro and two female refugee representatives. This incident created so much fear and panic inside the camp that those who managed to lock themselves out did so, and the rest are terrified by what might happen, as MONUSCO has now threatened to storm the camp by force.
This is an escalation for the UN which has started to starve these refugees in an attempt to force them back to Rwanda for the last three weeks. As they did in Kanyabayonga, the UN soldiers confiscated notebooks and any electronic devices from those refugees in order to stop any information from getting out of the camp.
Meanwhile the survivors of Kanyabayonga massacres are still struggling to recover from the trauma from the events of last month. As pregnant women are worried about miscarriages and children are still in shock, there is no sign that the UN will ever investigate the death of the unarmed innocent refugees who were supposed to be safe under UN protection. This is no surprise, as we have learned that the UN played an active role in the Kanyabayonga massacre by providing 300 litres of fuel to the Congolese troops who carried out this ignoble crime against humanity.
It has now become normal practice for the UN to force Rwandan Hutu refugees into the hands of their killers and pretend not to know how it happened after. It was the case in the 1990’s, when thousands of Rwandan refugees were forcefully returned to Rwanda to be murdered by the RPF, in some cases being removed from the UNHCR trucks for an unknown destination, and to this day no one inside the UN has even bothered to trace the whereabouts of those refugees. What happened in Kanyabayonga and what is happening today in Kisangani, is happening in front of the whole World and the UN is party to this tragedy. That is why we call upon all human rights defenders and the International Community as a whole to realize that Rwanda is not a country where refugees should be forced to return based on its horrific human rights record and the lack of basic freedoms.
Louise Mukasine
