“If you tell anyone that a DDRRR Officer was present here during the raid, you will suffer grave consequences.” These threatening words were heard being uttered by MONUSCO Officer from Benin, Major Rodrigue when he went back into the transition camp where a few days earlier his forces had terrorized the refugees, breaking doors, raping women in a systematic fashion and stealing every valuable item they could get their hands on. This unprecedented act of criminality by a UN Officer in broad daylight has yet to be reported on by any major news outlets, and the whole human right activist community seems to have chosen to keep silent about this incident. This has left the victims of these crimes fearing for their lives, wondering what it is going to happen next since they are still under siege from the same group that has been starving them, beating them, abusing them anyway it can, in order to force them to return to Rwanda.
Meanwhile 7 of the 10 refugees being kept in dark wholes at Sukola 2 detention center in Bukavu, have been forced to sign papers stating they want to return to Rwanda and they were shipped to Rwanda soon after, along with their dependents, bringing the number of those shipped to Rwanda to 30. The 7 detainees who were forced to return to Rwanda had been stripped naked, kept in dark holes without food or water for days The following people are still being imprisoned in holes in Bukavu: Jean Marie Vianney Ngendahayo, Josephine Mujawimana, Joseph Mbonye and his one year old baby Ombeni Jean d’Amour.
It is beyond appalling that the United Nations is being party to this cruel game being run for the benefit of Kigali, and it is even more disheartening to realize that the world community as a whole still holds the same stance about Rwandan Hutu refugees in DRC as they did 19 years ago, when more than 300 hundred Hutu refugees were slaughtered by RPF forces with the whole world community cheering on. As then US Ambassador to Zaire( now DRC) Daniel Simpson put it after wards “The attitude was that these were the bad guys.” In other words, “they had it coming.” It is this attitude that makes men like Major Rodrigue believe that they can lead a RAPE AND PILLAGE PARTY into a camp full of helpless refugees, because in his mind, since they are hutu refugees, no one will give a damn. I hope and pray that he is wrong, but the UN track record with Hutu refugees being what it is, I wouldn’t hold my breath. As the UN as a whole and Human rights organization take their sweet time in reacting to this enfolding catastrophe, Major Rodrigue’s victims fear for the worst and they are taking his threats seriously. Some have already said their goodbyes, as they believe that the Major’s next move is to eliminate them, because as the saying goes: dead people tell no tales.
Louise MUKASINE
