The insecurity caused by the occupation troops from Uganda and Rwanda in
the region of Rutshuru,
Rubero and Masisi, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo against
civilian populations is very
dangerously escalating.
On May 3, and 4, 1999, a summit between the President Museveni of Uganda, Bizimungu of Rwanda, Mkapa of Tanzania and the General Kagame was held in Dodoma, Tanzania. On Wednesday May 5, 1999, General Kagame declared that he had given instructions to his army to clean the regions of Rutshuru and Masisi of Mayi-Mayi, the Ex-FAR, and FAC who refused to join the Congolese rebellion. With this statement, General Kagame also ordered the population to gather in the trading centers of Mushaki and Matanda.
He said that he had given instructions to his army to shoot and kill anyone found outside the two places where the populations had to gather and undergo identification operations. These forced concentrations are similar to the infamous concentration and death camps created by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) government in the Northwestern Rwanda , in the provinces of Gisenyi and Ruhengeri.
Few days before the summit, the United Nations High Commissions for Refugees (UNHCR) had declared it was organizing relief operations in Goma in order to manage the flow of refugees whose provenance was yet unknown. One would wonder whether this UNHCR anticipation was pure coincidence or inspired by the Kigali Government planned pogrom. The UNHCR set the figures to about 100,000 hutu refugees still hiding in Eastern Congo forests, three years after the destruction of refugee camps and massacres of refugees by the Rwandan Patriotic Army.
Indeed, in 1996-1997, more than 200,000 hutu refugees were massacred by the Rwandan Patriotic Army, under the cameras of the international media and the conniving apathy of the International Community, including the UNHCR. One of the main refugee camps, TINGI-TINGI, was destroyed in February 1997, days after the visit by Mrs. Sadako Ogata, the Head of UNHCR. The Rwandan Patriotic Army found in that camp, food, medicine, and other equipment in UNHCR stores , that helped this army to sustain a military campaign for push towards West and eventually Kinshasa. It is troubling that the UNHCR is ready to reedit the same scenario, which would supply resources to the criminal operations of General Kagame and his RPA, against civilian populations.
In Mushaki and the areas around, the Rwandan Patriotic Army of General Kagame has already started to destroy villages and burn houses of the Congolese citizens to force them to flee. It is also reported that many people mainly the vulnerable (women, children, and elderly people) have been bitten and seriously injured. Bodies of massacred people are buried in mass graves. Those awaiting for the so-called identification are gathered in Bukumbilili Secondary School close to Kibabi. Many more are deported to Rwanda and labeled Repatriated Rwandan Refugees.
These acts show that the coalition of the governments of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi are actively engaged in an extermination policy and extending it to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The International Community needs to denounce energetically these atrocities and serious human rights violations against innocent civilians and call on these governments to engage in the path of peace.