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Fidele and I watched the first wave of evacuees--wealthier Zairians--leave Bukavu, Zaire. We heard the Bukavu airstrip was inundated and there weren't enough flights to accommodate those wishing to leave. But we continued to believe evacuation was unnecessary. War could never reach Bukavu, we thought. The international community would never let the situation deteriorate to that point.
And then the Rwandan refugee camps south of Bukavu were attacked. We heard that thousands of refugees were fleeing the camps and heading north. The first rains of the rainy season pounded Bukavu that night. The next day the first of these refugees arrived in Bukavu. Mostly women and children made the 60-kilometre walk, carrying all their worldly possessions: a cooking pot, a sleeping mat and a small bundle of clothes.
As the trickle of refugees became a flow, the United Nations decided to reroute them to camps outside Bukavu, another 85-km walk for the already exhausted and hungry refugees.
As tension continued to escalate, more military arrived from Kinshasa, Zaire's capital. We heard of battles fought and lost, of Zairian military fleeing. They felt abandoned and betrayed by their government. As war with the Banyamulenge (Zairian Tutsis) was declared in the southern portion of the region, Bukavu began to be overrun by the very Zairian troops sent to protect it.
Zairian soldiers who have not, in real terms, been paid in more than three years turned on the local population, looting and extorting money from civilians at roadblocks. Vehicles were confiscated and armed military could be seen patrolling the city in aid agency vehicles. It was no longer possible to travel in a vehicle without an armed escort. We parked our vehicle and began to travel by foot.
The feared anarchy came quickly. The United Nations evacuated its expatriate personnel on October 26. Due to the lawlessness of the Zairian military, aid workers could no longer go to the Rwandan refugee camps to assess the numbers and conditions of the incoming refugees, let alone distribute food, clothing or blankets.
Fidele and I watched their departure with dread. While this meant we were now personally cut-off from contact with the outside world, we realized the last "authority" in Bukavu was, for the moment, washing its hands of the situation. Now no one was in control. We found ourselves in the middle of a war zone, compounded by a refugee crisis, menaced by the same soldiers who were originally sent to protect, about to face a food crisis of catastrophic proportions, without any means of communicating with the outside world and without money or the means to have money sent in.
We spent agonizing hours discussing what to do--should we take advantage of a special evacuation flight scheduled for the next day? Perhaps this would be our last chance to leave. What about our friends in Bukavu, how do we leave them? What message would our departure give them? What words do you use to explain that the situation is so volatile you can no longer stay, but leave the unspoken reality that they will have to stay?
We finally decided to leave for Nairobi, Kenya, promising ourselves we would return to Bukavu within two days, staying away only long enough to get money and communicate the situation to Mennonite Central Committee headquarters.
Events unfold in unpredictable ways and we now find ourselves "captives" in Nairobi, cut off geographically and spiritually from our brothers and sisters in Bukavu. Bukavu literally exploded several hours after we left, the site of rebel aggression and Zairian soldier looting. (According to Compass Direct news sources, Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa Mwene Ngabo of Bukavu was killed Oct. 29 during attacks by Tutsi Banyamulenge rebels. An earlier attack on Oct. 6 claimed the lives of 50 patients and staff members at a missionary hospital in Lemera, eastern Zaire. At a nearby Catholic missionary station, two priests and 10 other Zairians were massacred by suspected Banyamulenge who were reportedly angry with the mission for caring for ethnic Hutus.) For the moment there is no way we can return to Bukavu, no flights in or out of the region. We follow the rather scanty news on the radio and television, we trade rumours with other aid workers evacuated here, we think, we remember and we pray.
Krista Rigalo, MCC Zaire, with information from Compass Direct
On Nov. 20, Krista Rigalo and Terry Sawatsky, co-directors of MCC's Africa program, were in the first group of outsiders allowed back into Bukavu since the town was captured by Zairian rebels in October. After a one-day assessment, they stress the need for prayer and aid for Rwandans and Zairians around Bukavu. They discovered the four Rwandan refugee camps MCC had helped support were empty. Church contacts reported the Interahamwe have taken the refugees hostage and are forcing them further into Zaire's interior. (The Interahamwe are Rwandan Hutu involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.) Sawatsky says roads are not passable by vehicle and people are travelling on foot. The sick and some children have been left to die by the road. Rwandans and Zairian soldiers have looted many Zairians' homes and farms, leaving people without blankets, warm clothing, seeds, food and many other basic necessities. The MCC offices had also been looted. Two MCC vehicles, a computer and other items were stolen. MCC continues to appeal for blankets and funds to assist people in central Africa. Rigalo and Lulmeya returned to eastern Zaire Dec. 17-26 to plan for the distribution of 50,000 blankets and to check on ongoing MCC work in Bukavu, including forestry and peace programs. About one million Rwandans have returned to Rwanda over the past two months.
The causes of this most recent crisis are complex, and are entwined in the region's history. Inter-ethnic conflict, high population density, migration across national boundaries and colonial social policy are all important factors. But short of a lengthy investigation of the past, it is essential to understand events in the region since early 1994.
In April 1994, extremist members of Rwanda's majority Hutu social/ethnic group in Rwanda organized and began to carry out a genocide against the minority Tutsi. The killing was carried out by the Rwandan Armed Forces, various extremist militia and the many peasant Hutu they incited, encouraged and sometimes forced to participate. Over two-and-a-half months, about 800,000 Tutsi were killed--about 10 percent of Rwanda's population.
Jeanne and her husband, Alfred, were at their little mud and wattle home with their two daughters when they heard gunshots. Their two sons were at school. As the violence came nearer, Jeanne hid in the bush with Juliette, 16. Alfred wanted to stay home to protect the property, and Speciose, 18, insisted on staying with her dad. Jeanne and Juliette watched horrified as Alfred and Speciose were brutally massacred by Hutu military with machetes, and their little house was set on fire. The two fled, agonizing over the two sons left behind. They walked to Burundi where Jeanne gave birth to another child. After some months, Jeanne took Juliette and the baby to Kenya, where she miraculously found her two sons. When Jeanne's money began to run out, she sought help from the United Nations and the family was flown to a refugee camp on the Kenya/Sudan border. There the baby became so ill refugee medical staff recommended Jeanne return to Kenya for medical care. While she was away, Juliette was raped in the camp. When Jeanne returned, Juliette did not tell her what happened. The family was eventually accepted for immigration to the United States. During the required medical tests Juliette learned she had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, due to the rape. She was no longer eligible to go to the States. Jeanne faced a hard decision: "Should I stay with my dying daughter in Nairobi, Kenya, as an illegal resident, risking being deported back to Rwanda? Or should I take my three youngest children to America where I can begin a more secure life for them?"
As the 1994 genocide started, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi-dominated rebel group based in Uganda, moved into Rwanda. Over the next several months the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of most of the country. About 300,000 Hutu fled to Tanzania in April/May, and another 2 million left for Zaire, Tanzania and Burundi in July/August. Another 1.5 million were internally displaced within Rwanda.
While media depicted the exodus of about 1.2 million Hutu people from Rwanda into eastern Zaire as a chaotic flight from the pursuing army, the migration was actually orchestrated by Hutu extremists who had just carried out the genocide. Included among the refugees were the militant militia, Hutu political leaders and much of the Rwandan army. Once again they incited, encouraged and even forced peasants to leave their homes. This amounted to a strategic retreat by Hutu militants, with much of the population taken as hostage.
When the soldiers arrived at our compound, everyone was screaming and fleeing for their lives. I had two sons with me and I didn't know where my wife and the other seven children had run to. We followed the crowd with the few things we carried. After two days we arrived at Goma, Zaire, and set up a plastic shelter. For days we milled around in a daze. Then one day across the crowded camp, I spotted a woman who looked like my wife. I couldn't believe my eyes. As I ran toward her, she recognized me. I cried with joy as I learned my entire family had made it to Goma alive. When I heard that wonderful news, I praised God and promised I would spend the rest of my life telling people what God had done for my family.
In August 1994, the massive numbers of people and the outbreak of cholera, which took the lives of some 30,000 refugees, created chaos in the refugee camps. Later that same month more than 100,000 refugees returned to Rwanda. Since that time, however, few have returned. Hutu militants and former Rwandan military personnel took control of the camps and prevented people from leaving through constant propaganda about conditions in Rwanda and through threats.
Early in 1996 sporadic fighting began in eastern Zaire. Exactly which parties initiated this conflict and why is uncertain. It is clear that Zairian Tutsi, the Zairian military and refugee camp-based Rwandan Hutu were involved, and that Zairians of various ethnic groups were victims. Zairian officials have accused the Rwandan and Burundian armies, both dominated by Tutsi, of involvement. In August and September the fighting spread, and by the end of October, some 1.5 million people were trapped in a war zone.
It is difficult to foresee any quick resolution to this regional conflict.
The most fundamental issue remains the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Rwandans--Hutu and Tutsi alike--must come to terms with the enormity of that event. Until then, none of the related problems--refugees, armed conflict and general instability and insecurity in the region--can be seriously addressed. Currently 85,000 people are in detention or prison in Rwanda, most suspected of participating in the genocide. The majority of the genocide ringleaders and organizers are still free, many sheltered by neighbouring African and some European governments. The process of bringing these people to justice has been inexorably slow, partly because the entire Rwandan justice system was decimated by the 1994 war and genocide, partly because of the enormity of the task.
Dealing with the evil of genocide offers the only hope for finding a way out of the cycles of suffering and death that have recently defined this region in the eyes of its peoples and the world.
Tim Lind, a long-time MCC Africa worker, lives in Three Rivers, Mich.
July 1, 1962 - Belgian trusteeship of Ruanda-Urundi granted independence becoming two countries: Rwanda and Burundi.
1963 - Tutsi exiles stage unsuccessful coup, leading to large-scale massacre of Tutsis.
July, 1973 - a bloodless coup in which Junval Habyarimana, a Hutu, becomes president.
1990 - attempted coup by Tutsis, a multi-party democracy is established, with Habyarimana remaining as president.
August, 1993 - renewed ethnic strife leads to peace accord between government and Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
April 6, 1994 - President Habyarimana and President Cyprien Ntayamira of Burundi die in a mysterious plane crash as they return from peace negotiations in neighbouring Tanzania. Massive violence follows in Rwanda, an estimated 500,000 to one million people, mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, die in massacres led by the Hutu militia, civil war follows as RPF seeks power. An estimated two million Rwandans, both Tutsi and Hutu, flee to refugee camps in Zaire and other countries.
July, 1994 - RPF claims victory, installing a moderate Hutu as president.
1972-73 - Tutsi-dominated regime challenged by an unsuccessful Hutu rebellion leaving 150,000 Hutus dead, and over 100,000 Hutus fleeing to neighbouring Tanzania and Zaire.
1980s - Burundi government begins to work toward ethnic reconciliation and democratic reform.
June, 1993 - the nation's first democratic presidential election brings Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, to power. He is later killed in a coup attempt two months later, setting off waves of ethnic violence.
January, 1994 - Cyprien Ntayamira, a Hutu, is elected president.
April 6, 1994 - President Cyprien Ntayamira and President Habyarimana of Rwanda die in a mysterious plane crash as they return from peace negotiations in neighbouring Tanzania, sparking limited violence.
1995 - violence intensifies
July, 1996 - Tutsi-led army stages a coup, placing strongman Buyoya in power.
In November there were now about 1.1 million Rwandan Hutu refugees in Zaire, among them armed former army soldiers and militiamen who have prevented people from returning home. Near the town of Uvira, there are about 200,000 Burundian Hutu refugees who fled their country as early as 1972.
from a November news release from Compass Direct
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