Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR)
03.05.02
His Excellency Mr. President:
I am writing on behalf of the Organization for Peace, Justice and Development in Rwanda (OPJDR) to thank your government and the people of Tanzania for granting asylum and protection to thousands of Rwandan refugees and to request that you continue to extend hospitality to them.
There are international media reports suggesting that the government of Tanzania may soon round up Rwandan refugees living in Tanzania and deport them as it did in 1996.
To OPJDR's knowledge 25,000 Rwandan refugees still live in northwestern Tanzania in the camps of Lukole and Kitali. These refugees were forcibly repatriated to Rwanda in December 1996. They fled back to Tanzania because of insecurity in their villages, arbitrary detention and distrust of popular tribunals known as "GACACA". Many of those refugees found their properties in the hands of Tutsi returnees from Uganda. Those who tried to claim them back did not receive due process; instead authorities accused them of genocide. They had no choice but to flee back to Tanzania. This prompted, In 1998, the United Nations the spokeswoman for the UNHCR , Paula Ghedini, to publicly declare that thousands Rwandan Refugees were returning to Tanzania, despite the guaranty of safety. She also demented widespread arbitrary arrest by soldiers and disappearances of both returnees and civilians.
The government of Tanzania issued ID cards to these Rwandan refugees after a thorough interview to establish whether they were bona fide refugees. So far they have been living peacefully. Now, they have to deal with uncertainty over their future.
The OPJDR would like to believe these reports are baseless rumors aimed at tarnishing the image of the host country and demoralizing Rwandan refugees.
To foreign observers Rwanda looks peaceful, but to Rwandans, the country is a jungle run by a brutal dictatorial regime that oppresses and kills people. Current Rwandan leaders use the genocide of Tutsis as its justification of the violation of human rights and international law.
Two former Prime Ministers, members of the Transitional Assembly (NTA), magistrates, journalists, businessmen and high ranking military officers who collaborated with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) fled to Western Europe and North America after denouncing the human rights record of the current regime. A hit squad of the current regime assassinated a former minister of interior and a colonel in Nairobi, Kenya. Both were members of the RPF.
In rural areas, a network of RPF security agents and local defense forces (LDF) keep a watchful eye on peasants. To control the population, the RPF regime has forced people to destroy their houses and to move in makeshift villages known as imidugudu. In order to pursue its war and looting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC), police conduct regular sweeps to arrest young people who are subsequently sent to the front after short military training.
The OPJDR would like to urge the government of Tanzania to ignore RPF propaganda saying security and peace have returned to Rwanda and maintain its policy of protecting and granting asylum to fleeing Rwandans.
Sincerely,
Japhet Mwizerwa
Coordinator of Relief and Refugee Affairs
Organization for Peace, Justice, and Development in Rwanda.
CC:
His Excellency Kofi Annan
Secretary General of the United Nations
United Nations Plaza, S-3800
New York, New York 10017
The Honorable Colin L. Powell
Secretary of the U. S. Department of State
Washington, DC 20520
The Honorable Cynthia McKinney
US Congress
124 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515
His Excellency Ruud Lubbers
High Commissioner of the UNHCR
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Geneve 2 Depot Suisse.
Kenneth Roth
Executive Director
The Director of Human Rights Watch350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700, Fax: 1-(212) 736-130