"Refugees have been caught up between different fires: home countries, UNHCR with other organizations and the host countries. Each of the parties wants to gain profits and uses the issue of refugees as it pleases. When is that mercantile saga taking an end within the current globalization context?"


Refugees, the saga in the Great Lakes
Written by Gilbert NDAHAYO
E-mail: sheggy01@hotmail.com
Greetings from Kigali and blessings to you all.
There are multiple motives behind the wave of refugees and displaced people: armed conflicts, civil wars and internal ethnic clashes. All along that saga, Rwanda has not been an exception.
The issue of refugees has brought about a tense and complex atmosphere between all the parties involved.
"Refugees have been caught up between different fires: home countries, UNHCR with other organizations and the host countries. Each of the parties wants to gain profits and uses the issue of refugees as it pleases. When is that mercantile saga taking an end within the current globalization context?"
Over recent years, the Great Lakes’ region has experienced the flight of refugees from one country to its neighboring. There are multiple motives behind that wave of refugees and displaced people: armed conflicts, civil wars, internal ethnic clashes to name a few.

All along that saga, Rwanda has not been an exception. The issue of refugees has brought about a tense and complex atmosphere between all the parties involved.

In fact, besides 1959 revolution that threw out of the country thousands and thousands of Tutsi with subsequent events, the 1994 genocide speaks itself. Millions of people fled into neighboring countries especially Congo, the then Zaire, and Tanzania. During that massive influx of refugees, thousands died of epidemics. At the same time, the 1959 refugees were returning home -armed- from the neighboring countries.

Despite the massive return of refugees at the end of 1996, there are still thousands of Rwandese refugees roaming in Congolese forests while others based in Tanzania, Uganda, Congo Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Belgium, France, USA and elsewhere.

The Rwandese government has increasingly been at the loggerheads with UNHCR, NGOs, Human Rights organizations and western powers over the issue of refugees. The Rwandese government accuses them of preventing refugees from voluntarily returning home pretending that the situation in the country is unsafe (people arbitrarily arrested, others are kidnapped and arrested, properties are illegally occupied, there is no freedom of speech, etc.).

On the other hand, the Rwandese government is accused of restricting and jeopardizing the voluntary return of refugees in their motherland. According to some NGOs as well as the Human Rights organizations, the government bring fake accusations against refugees purposely -some are accused or suspected of having taken part in the genocide in Rwanda while others are believed to be ex-FAR and Interahamwe militia (negative forces that perpetrated genocide in Rwanda in 1994). Thus, those targeted people do not want to return home for fear of being subjected to reprisals. But, what is the real underlying motive of those accusations and counteraccusations? Broadly speaking, refugees are used as income-generating for the benefits of all the stakeholders in the so-called humanitarian missions.

THE RWANDESE GOVERNMENT'S ATTEMPTS

The government of Rwanda, far from any political or economic gains, is willing to find an everlasting solution to the issue of refugees. It is in this line that various government officials have undertaken a series of visits in the refugee camps in the countries that harbor Rwandese refugees. All those missions aim at talking to them and sensitizing them to return home.

Through and thanks to those face-to-face exchanges, refugees get the current clear picture of their country. Further, such visits have yielded success. Indeed, many refugees have voluntarily returned home. But, there are still diehards who hold refugees as their human shield.



POLITICAL REFUGEES, ASYLUM SEEKERS?

In the past, some government officials, army officers and other citizens have fled the country for alleged politically motivated persecution. This wave of 'political' refugees or rather asylum seekers has fueled tension between Rwanda-their host governments- and international human rights organizations. The latter on hold that the new development as clear proof of insecurity, instability in the country.

Apart from this, the government is accused of intransigence towards political opponents. The government has angrily reacted to these allegations describing them as baseless and biased. In fact, the motive behind those unfounded allegations is nothing else than 'stomachism'.

Some officials are driven by ambition, lust for power and money. When their pressing needs are not met, they leave the country hoping to get interests in their soiling the image of their home country. They then consider refugee status as their asylum and alibi.

On the other hand, some officials are accused or suspected of having masterminded or participated in 1994 genocide. They therefore flee the country to run away from the court trials.

CONGOLESE REFUGEES IN RWANDA: A BURNING CASE

The Congolese refugees based in Rwanda constitute the subject of discord between the Rwandese government and UNHCR.

Over recent days, UNHCR has accused the government of Rwanda within its allied-RDC Goma of forcibly repatriating Congolese refugees based in two camps (Gihembe in Byumba province and Kiziba in Kibuye province).

According to the refugees, they fear for their security once returned home. The youths fear to be involuntarily enrolled in the Democratic Republic of Congo army.

The Rwandese government has angrily dismissed the allegations stating that it is a handful of refugees employed by UNHCR and other NGOs catering for refugees who are willing to go back home for fear of losing their jobs.


The issue of refugees has been politicized so that international conventions have been looked down upon. Refugees have therefore been caught up between different fires: home countries, UNHCR with other organizations and the host countries. Each of the parties wants to gain profits and uses the issue of refugees as it pleases. When is that mercantile saga taking an end within the current globalization context? If you have an answer of a half of the answer, please post it here below.

Due to the development and turns of the ongoing war in Democratic Republic of Congo, the issue of Refugees is pending. I am just trying to see the game, whatever the good and bad intentions in it, Refugees in the Greak Lakes Regions look very sterile like a land you know, do they count? Do they matter? This is a people where things happen too. They are not actors to their own destiny, nor in making their own destiny. This is a people who has no history as it is said in the foreign media. They do not make a history, it only happens to them. The government only does things to them, they don’t do anything, they are just there and being used. That is a very bad way to do whatever analysis while in some refugees they are the so-called intellectuals, academicians or alike.

Are Refugees all over the world able to express their dilemma with regard to their plight and reality? Not probably by questioning their governments the attitude about the position to adopt with regard to issues and historical interpretation as it has inherited an already mined terrain of wars and mass killings.

In the name of Jesus, the churches with the holy Saint Bible and a fear of God claimed to help the marginalized people but their underlying motive was to start their divide and rule system.
Did the churches in Rwanda fuel tensions? The failings of the Rwanda's churches during the genocide and prior massacres were not the result of the few corrupt individuals but rather were deeply rooted in the very nature of Christianity in Rwanda.





THE CHURCHES IN RWANDA HAVE PAVED THE WAY FOR WARS, MASSACRES AND GENOCIDE
Compiled and written by Gilbert NDAHAYO
June 12, 2003

In the name of Jesus, the churches with the holy Saint Bible and a fear of God claimed to help the marginalized people but their underlying motive was to start their divide and rule system.
Did the churches in Rwanda fuel tensions? The failings of the Rwanda's churches during the genocide and prior massacres were not the result of the few corrupt individuals but rather were deeply rooted in the very nature of Christianity in Rwanda.

INTRODUCTION

Over many years, most African countries have been torn by brutal waves of violence including ethnical clashes, wars, and political turmoil among others. Rwanda has not been spared. The 1994 holocaust that hit the country speaks for itself: more than 80 percent of Tutsi being in the country lost their lives.
In fact, in a three months period from April to June in the wake of former President Juvenal HABYARIMANA's plane crash, a million of Tutsi and moderated Hutus were brutally massacred. The perpetrators of those mass killings included the former Rwanda Armed Forces (FAR), Interahamwe and other militia trained to carry out genocide.

RWANDA is one of the most Christian especially Catholic nations in Africa. However, it comes to a great shock to hear that almost all the targeted people who were hunted down and took refuge in churches were savagely killed with grenades and guns, machetes and other traditional weapons. The worst came to the worst when those whose mission to protect them including UN Troops were passively looking on as if they were overpowered by killers!

In the aftermath of this holocaust in which most people lost their lives in churches, Rwanda's Christian churches have been subject to extensive criticism. Different people including journalists, scholars, human rights activists to name a few have accused the churches of failing to oppose the genocide and above all of active complicity in the violence.

The role of churches -many priests, pastors, nuns, brothers, catechists and other church Leaders were in one way or the other involved in planning, organizing and carrying out the genocide- takes us back to history or church background in Rwanda to ascertain the genesis of close alliances between churches and the leading elite since the colonial era through successive Republic rules up to 1994 horrific bloodbath. All along, Catholic and Protestant churches in Rwanda have been centres of socio-political power allied with the state.



CHRISTIANITY AND COLONIALISM

The manner in which Christianity was implanted in Rwanda and the ideas and policies promoted by missionaries should be questioned. In effect, the first mission station in Rwanda was established in 1900 by society of Our Lady Africa, commonly known as The White Father.

Monseigneur Lavigerie, the Founder of the Order, promoted the ideas that to implant Christianity successfully in society, missionaries should focus their efforts on converting first and foremost political authorities including the leaders of Rwanda, society-local chiefs, people attached to Royal Court and other important individuals. Why were the Leaders at the focal point of the missions? What was behind that strategy? Was it really a spiritual mission or there was something afoot?

Whatever reasons may be, it should be clear that the motive behind was to pave the way for colonial project in order to win the mass sympathy and to build up first foundation of their involvement in ruling the country: if the King and other prominent leaders could be convinced to adopt Christianity and therefore colonial project without them knowing their subjects would easily follow.

Although in the early ages of that strategy, the number of conversion remained small, in subsequent decades by 1920 the number of nobles converted to Christianity significantly rose up. Likewise, much of the Rwandan population did in fact follow the examples of their leaders and converted to Catholicism.

As days went by, missionaries became instrumental in position to the one King and the selection of his successor especially after 1931. This development brought about changes or rather problems over church-state relation: the saga of YUHI V MUSINGA (1896-1931) is a striking example.

That King was at several times at loggerheads with missionaries over different issues. He resented the power of missionaries and frequently opposed the church. He therefore became an obstacle to get rid of. They could no longer stand having MUSINGA on power.
As a result, they cultivated supporters within the Royal Court, using their influence to advance pro-catholic elements in the struggles for power within the court and they maintained excellent relations with colonial authorities. They actively interceded with the Belgian administration to remove MUSINGA from power and replaced him by his pro-catholic son MUTARA III RUDAHIGWA.

Under RUDAHIGWA reign, the church flourished and its involvement in running politically matters increasingly rose.
'Sir, the mission that you have founded in the North of Rwanda contributes a good deal to the participation of that district. They facilitate substantially the tasks of government and the influence of your missionaries has served as necessity of undertaking military expedition…' DR KANDT -the German colonies administrator- wrote in 1913 to the Vicar of Kivu -MR. HIRTH-, the Head of The White Fathers for Ruanda-Urundi, thanking him for the work of the church.





CHURCH-STATE: THE TURNPOINT

In the 1950s, the close alliance between the Catholic Church and the Rwanda court broke down. The church changed hand and a number of missionaries who came to Rwanda in the post-war period were social, democratic philosophers and were concerned by the plight of Hutu people who, despite constituting more than 80 percent of the population were entirely excluded from political office and other opportunities for advancement.

Contrary to their predecessors who dominated the society, the new progressive priests cultivated Hutu counter-elite, providing opportunities for education and employment to select Hutu. This sort of ethnic discrimination was probably done purposely.

The church claimed to help the marginalized people but the underlying motive was to start their divide and rule system so that they could fish in the muddy water after getting rid of Tutsis who seemed to oppose their ideologies.

To observers and analysts, unrest was looming. Would those on power easily quit and surrender power to the newly emerged Hutu elite? Could the latter, now conscious of their exploitation, not taking revenge?

In fact, the churches knew they were fuelling ethnic tensions that sharply increased and culminated into massive movements of people. In November 1959, Hutu mobs attacked Tutsi chiefs and officials in several locations, causing thousands of Tutsi to flee the country. The Belgian administration heavily influenced by the missionaries, abruptly switched its allegiance from the Tutsi to the Hutu and rapidly replaced the Tutsi chiefs and officials by Hutu who owed their position substantially to the church.

Rwanda achieved its independence in 1962 with an almost entirely Hutu government.



AFTER INDEPENDENCE: THE ENTANGLEMENT OF THE CHURCHES AND STATE

In general, the alliance of the church and the state was stronger after independence.

Grégoire KAYIBANDA, considered as the first President of Rwanda, had served as editor of the Catholic newspaper -KINYAMATEKA-. He was provided with training in Europe by missionaries and received other support that helped him emerge as a Leader. Other Hutu officials and politicians were church employees or were recruited out of the catholic seminaries.
All this shows that the churches were entangled with the state so that the integration of the former into wider structure of power allowed wealth and privilege to be accumulated into of a selected few.

Under the Second Republic - HABYARIMANA's regime-, the churches -especially the Roman Catholic Church- were overtly involved in the administration. Bishops, priests, nuns were members of the ruling party 'MRND'; they even held higher position in the party. Could this go without any consequences?
Given ideologies promoted by the ruling MRND, it should be clear that the Roman Catholic Church played a great role in paving the way for massacres and genocide.

When the war broke out in 1990 launched by the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA), the Tutsi refugees from ethnic violence of the 1959 and 1970s, many Tutsi living in the country were indiscriminately killed accused of complicity with the invaders. Among those killed include priests and nuns who were thrown into the hands of killers by their fellow priest or Christian. Moreover, some priests and catechists preached hatred and division during public office!

In face of that massacres of Tutsi that took place from 1990-1993, the Christian churches turned a blind eye, a deaf ear and a dumb tongue even when on several occasions church properties and personnel were targeted! It is clear that that was a well-planned strategy.

The situation went from bad to worse in 1994 when the genocide finally occurred. Church personnel were, not surprisingly, intimately involved. How could masses of people be killed in churches and other church buildings with church leaders passively looking on when they had great influence on the leadership to stop the killings? How come for priests, nuns being killed by their fellow?
In any case, the role of the churches in genocide is overt.



CONCLUSION:

From the foregoing, the failings of the Rwanda's churches during the genocide and prior massacres were not the result of the few corrupt individuals but rather were deeply rooted in the very nature of Christianity in Rwanda. Policies, ideologies promoted by missionaries since the implantation of Christianity, during colonial era, after independence and under the first and the second Republics transformed the Rwanda's society helped create and maintain the authoritarian and divided society. Furthermore, the entanglement of the churches with the state made the churches partners - state policy. All this paved the way to genocide.

Dear People,

I am Gilbert NDAHAYO and I live in Kigali, the Capital city of Rwanda. As a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and like some of the victims of the holocaust, I have a lot of experiences and stories of those unimaginable odds to tell and speak out.

In the course of the genocide project, two sections are focused on:

1. To mark Anniversaries of remembering the victims of genocide, a documentary from audio to video, from written articles to a pure capture of must-see-hear arts expressing views about genocide and its related issues will be provided to people/organisations across the world in order to make them conversant with genocide and its related issues.

2. A memorial center is to be set up to preserve genocide evidences and educate people especially the youth on genocide and its related issues.


No man is an island, they say but it is true. This project is not an easy task to be carried out by a single person with limited means. I want to be helped by organisations and individuals to get in touch with funders and other people that are interested and committed to being involved in this initiative.

If you have concrete ideas about local initiatives/individuals/organisation that can take part in this project, please send an e-mail to sheggy01@hotmail.com or just call me at (+250) 0849 05 01.


A TALE OF TEN YEARS

The genocide that hit Rwanda in April 1994 has borne a lot of attention both national and worldwide so that articles on it published in mass media have attracted more audience.

More and more people have expressed their keen interest in hearing stories about what happened in Rwanda – “genocide”.

Also, the Rwandan community, especially young people, is very enthusiastic to tell his story ‘before it is too late. Soon there won’t be any left to tell what happened.’
Not enough, then, to write it down: it must be spoken.”

To mark Anniversaries of genocide remembrance and to give a message of hope, especially to the survivors, that people outside Rwanda do care and that we are making an effort to avoid these kinds of tragedies again, I, in association with local people and organisations, would like to provide an opportunity and a room to a genocide tale.

· Learn about the role of the West in the Rwanda’s genocide
· Learn about the legacy of the genocide: the orphans, widows and the huge burden of justice and reconciliation. What is being done to enable the country to live with itself?
· The future rests on how well the present is dealt with. How will poverty be tackled and health improved, what is being done and what else should be done?
· What is genocide and how is it affecting personal lives?
· How is genocide related to globalisation – genocide vis-à-vis causes and consequences of global changes -? What are the effects of genocide – genocide in its shapes and forms? Who is to blame for genocide: individuals, religions, governments or the international community? What is your personal story?
· How is Rwanda recovering from Genocide?


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

It is essential that a message be given to Rwanda that although they were abandoned in 1994, today the world takes notice of them and their story.

‘Genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law.’ (United Nations Convention on Genocide, 1948).
Many countries signed the Convention, some of whom have since been part to genocide.

In May 1994, the historian Gilbert Martin wrote that the holocaust:
‘has recently become the subject of efforts to deny that it ever took place. Those denials are a cruel travesty of the truth. They are an insult to the memory of the dead, and a danger for the future. If we deny what happened in the past - the recent past - we will not be able to learn the vital lessons for the future. The evil that was done to the Jews of Europe must never be attempted again, against anyone.’
That exhortation was made while the Rwandan genocide was taking place.

“We have been obliged to show the bones of our dead, to show the world that the genocide existed; we couldn't give a grave to our dead.” writes Yolande MUKAGASANA, a genocide survivor, in ‘La mort ne veut pas de moi’.

“No one will believe us but we have got to talk about it even if anyone believes us or not,” said a genocide survivor.
But how can such a subject be taught/heard and what lessons should we be learning as we pause to remember?

The answer is A VITAL LESSON FOR THE FUTURE GENERATION

What must be learned is how, and when, ‘ordinary human beings’ acquire a mind-set that makes some people willing to perform atrocities and many people unable to dissent.

This oral living history project will allow people to relate to other human beings who have been pushed to one side and yet are still fighting for their voices to be heard:

1. Civilization lives by memory.
What we forget, we can repeat.
What we remember, we can guard against.

2. Only by handing on to our children what we have learned, often at great cost, have we a chance of turning history into a narrative of hope instead of an endless cycle of hatred and bloodshed.

3. The framework and type of decision-making on the practical implementation of the programme, that we see here, can be repeated elsewhere.’ As indeed it has been: Russia, China, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda…and can happen elsewhere at any time.

4. What the Rwandan genocide must teach the entire World is not what it means to be a Tutsi or a moderate Hutu, but what it means to be human - and to acknowledge the humanity of others.


GOAL:

The overall goal of this project is to discover how to protect children of the future from such programmes.

So, it is the record of vivid details, intimate snapshots from the individual sufferings of children of the past, which constitutes a memorial, and a warning, more effective than the terrifying but inapprehensible statistics of death.


GENERAL OBJECTIVES:

1. RAISING AWARENESS AND APPEALING FOR ACTION

I am interested in hearing local communities that want to raise awareness about genocide and its related issues.

This genocide tale will be carried out through a conducive cultural and academic environment that will facilitate physical meetings and debates through which university students, lecturers, genocide survivors’ associations, youth organisations, NGOs, local artists and government officials will discuss a given theme on genocide.
A compilation of summaries and comments of those physical meetings will be written and published on websites that provides rooms for such stories for a wider online discussion. Also, I am planning to write and publish a book on genocide stories.

In addition, we would like to provide full assistance to filmmakers that would like to travel to Rwanda to make a documentary on genocide stories.
What’s new with this online film? This documentary is going to show how Rwanda is recovering from genocide. This is something that people and the media never thought about it.


2. PARTICIPATING IN THE FESTIVAL OF HOPE

To mark Anniversaries of remembering the victims of genocide a ‘Festival of Hope’ is organised every year by local musician in collaboration with various European artists.

In this line, I would like to facilitate individuals who would like to travel to Rwanda to participate in the Festival of Hope and assist people or organisations that would like to hold stands during the festival to show their activities and to express solidarity with the people in Rwanda.

A MEMORIAL CENTRE

As we have recently received various ideas from people here in Rwanda and abroad, this part will be updated at beginning of January 2005. I am currently working on it with some young people, historians and artists that are interested to elaborate this centre.


In the past three years, I have worked out on a series of researches on issues related to the Rwandan Genocide including ( a summary is available to each work):

1. Rwanda- ‘The Land of a thousand hills’: A country profile
Rwanda is not flat, brown, sandy land with few trees and a little rain, as most people deceptively think of it in the wider African context. Varied floras cover slopes enclosing ranged hills stretching from the East to the West between Nile and Congo rivers’ basins in the centre of Africa. This ranged relief confers to RWANDA the name of “THE LAND OF A THOUSAND HILLS”.

2. Rwanda: The abandoned country.
People thought they were safe under “UN protection”. Who can understand how ‘courageously’ could UN troops surrender to militia and ‘run away’ amidst genocide? What are the hidden interests of (UN) international interventions under the umbrella of ‘Humanitarian intervention’? They don’t have oil or diamonds we know about that but they have blood.

3. History of wars and genocide in Rwanda: A short summary
From the period of after 1930 until 1994, Rwanda went through a history of ethnical and regional discrimination with enormous consequences. But how did it all begin? Why war in Rwanda 1990-1994 and who financed it?

4. Living by memory: A personal story
As a survivor of the last genocide of the 20th century, I would like share with people all over the world this account of my personal experiences which is at once a profile in courage and a document of hope against unimaginable odds: “What the Rwandan genocide must teach the entire World is not what it means to be a Tutsi or a moderate Hutu, but what it means to be human - and to acknowledge the humanity of others”.

5. The churches in Rwanda have paved the way for wars, massacres and genocide.
They claimed to help the marginalized people but their underlying motive was to start their divide and rule system. Did the churches in Rwanda fuel tensions? The failings of the Rwanda’s churches during the genocide and prior massacres were not the result of the few corrupt individuals but rather were deeply rooted in the very nature of Christianity in Rwanda.

6. Photo gallery

7. A poetry project at www.thesurvivor.4t.com