AfroAmerica Network
Washington. D.C.
05.09.01
Seven Rwandan students have refused to return to Rwanda after completing studies in the United States.
On May 06, 2001, fourteen students graduated from LaRoche College but seven did not catch the flight that was supposed to take them back to Rwanda last Monday. Sources say the seven students may have decided to seek asylum in the United States because they fear persecution from the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) regime.
The seven students belong to a group of twenty students the RPF regime sent to LaRoche College four years ago to receive professional training so they could go back and work in the various services of the Rwandan government. All twenty students were Tutsi returnees from Uganda.
Out of the twenty students, fourteen students finished their undergraduate degree last week, four still have a number of credits to finish, one student finished earlier and managed to get into a master's degree program at Georgetown University, and LaRoche College expelled one student who got involved in political activities. This student crossed into Canada and applied for political asylum.
As the completion of their studies approached, these students asked the RPF regime to allow them to work towards master's degrees and the RPF answer was no.
LaRoche College rented a bus to take them from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where LaRoche College is located to Washington, DC to catch the flight to Rwanda. Seven students showed up. College officials thought that other students had left for the airport by themselves. At the airport, Rwandan embassy and College officials scrambled to find presumably lost students. They even asked airline officials to page them but to no avail.
As students were paged, the AfroAmerica Network correspondent who happened to be at the airport wrote down the names of students who did not show up for the trip home:
Bosco Mugisha, BS in Finance, a Tutsi returnee from Uganda;
Careb Mabano, BS in Finance, a Tutsi returnee from Uganda;
Godeffrey Biravanga, BS in Accounting, a Tutsi returnee from Uganda;
Francis Besigye, BS in Computer Information Systems, a Tutsi returnee from Uganda;
Muyango, BS in Computer Information Systems, a Tutsi returnee from Uganda
Charles Heza, BS in Graphic Design, a Tutsi returnee from Kenya;
Davina Heza, BS in Chemistry, a Tutsi returnee from Uganda.
Davina and Charles are Heza's children a senior RPF official. Not long ago he was Director-General in the ministry of public works.
Sources say all students had been issued return tickets but those mentioned earlier did not show up to board the plane. Those who have returned are individuals who relate to senior RPF military officers and Rwandan President Paul Kagame's family. These sources add that some of these students are likely to return to the United States because they have fathered children with American citizens.
This group came to study to the United States when the minister of education was Colonel Joseph Karemera, the current ambassador to South Africa. LaRoche College, a private Catholic college provided scholarships.
Most observers say his agenda was to train Tutsi returnees from Uganda so that they could dominate Tutsi survivors and Hutu.
Colonel Karemera is a member of the board of trustees of LaRoche College. Mrs. Jeannette Museveni, the first lady of Uganda is another African figure who belongs to this board. She and Karemera convinced the board of trustees to award a doctorate to Rwandan President General Paul Kagame.
A source says LaRoche President MGR William A. Kerr has been disappointed. He and other College Officials are to fly to Kigali on May 11 to hold a graduation ceremony with Rwandan President Kagame and RPF officials.
(c)AfroAmerica Network, May , 2001.
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