Once again Rwandan refugees at the General Bauma Camp in Kisangani, housing former FDLR combatants who laid down their arms to give peace a chance in their homeland, are faced with extreme physical and mental torture, inflicted on them by MONUSCO and Congolese government agents, with the goal to force them to return to Rwanda, even though the conditions for a peaceful return to Rwanda are far from being met.
As a matter of fact recent reports from Rwanda portray a land where the security situation is deteriorating, where people are getting killed in broad daylight for petty crimes by order of the government, and where according to Human Rights Watch, those combatants who were returned to Rwanda by MONUSCO were immediately jailed and and tortured for months.
According to sources in Kisangani UN staffers along with their Congolese counterparts have been telling the refugees that they will no longer provide the basic necessities of life, such as food, water and medicine, telling them that those who want to eat or drink must sign a form that states that they are agreeing to returning to Rwanda. As a matter of fact, MONUSCO and Congolese Government agents in charge of the camp have followed through with their threats as they have cut off food, water and medicine to these refugees since December 31.2017. This is not the first time MONUSCO has resorted to cruelty in an attempt to force these refugees back into Rwanda, and in some cases even death has occurred as a result of lack of medicare due to willful acts of negligence by those in charge of the camp.
It is appalling that the UN has failed to convince the Rwandese Government to make peace with its own citizens in order to resolve all political issues that are the real cause of instability, not only inside Rwanda but in the whole region, instead the UN is using its armed wing in the DRC to participate in a blatant violation of human rights just to please a tyrannical regime such as the one at the head of the Rwandan State.
We call upon all human rights organizations to remind the UN uphold its obligations, and protect these refugees that include many vulnerable women, children, the sick and the elderly. We also remind African States that have provided troops to MONUSCO not to be part of this kind of cruelty against other Africans. History will not look kindly to those who stood by as innocent refugees were being tortured by those who were supposed to look after them.
Nadine Uwamahoro.
Duterimbere Media
Goma, DRC
Email: [email protected]
