Banyamulenge refugees reject relocation

The Burundian human rights advocacy group, Iteka, reported on Monday that about 1,000 Congolese refugees of Tutsi origin, known as the Banyamulenge, were refusing transfer from transit camps in Bujumbura Rurale and Cibitoke to a refugee camp in northeastern Burundi where Hutu rebels are active.

The Burundi government and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began transferring Congolese refugees to a camp in Gasorwe Commune, Muyinga Province, on 27 May.

"They think their security will not be guaranteed in the new camp, which is situated close to the borders with Rwandan and Tanzania," Iteka reported.

Banyamulenge refugees told Iteka that the refugee camp was just 50 km from the border with Rwanda, which was "at war" with the Banyamulenge in the plateau region of South Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The reference is to a mutiny in early 2002 among Tutsi troops in the Rwanda-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) - which controls about one third of the DRC - and resulted in heavy fighting around Minembwe, South Kivu, between RCD-Goma troops and the mutineers, led by Commandant Patrick Masunzu.

The Banyamulenge feared that in Muyinga, far away from the media's gaze, they would be arrested and deported to Rwanda, Iteka said. Such fears were based on a similar experience in January and March when 18 Banyamulenge were handed over to Rwandan authorities in two separate incidents.

The Banyamulenge also said that the camp was 36 km from the border with Tanzania, where there were "negative forces" present - meaning Rwandan Hutus - present, who had killed Banyamulenge in eastern DRC.

The local population in Muyinga was also seen as hostile to the Banyamulenge. This perception was expressed in a letter nine parliamentarians from Muyinga wrote to the president of the Burundi National Assembly, referring to the "negative behaviour of the refugees, which is detrimental to security in general, and the distrust between local residents of Muyinga and the refugees", Iteka reported.

Moreover, the Banyamulenge regarded the site of the refugee camp as insecure because "large-scale massacres" were committed against Tutsis in the region between 1993 and 1996.

A UNHCR official told IRIN on Monday: "It is a government decision to transfer the refugees. It has the right to settle them where it thinks they will be more secure in terms of welfare and wellbeing. The transit centres could not be maintained any longer."

Current levels of aid to the Congolese refugees (food, non-food items, sanitation and education) would, however, be stopped as soon as the majority of the refugees was transferred and the transit camps closed.