RCD-Goma expels Burundi nationals

The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement has expelled 193 Burundians from Museke in the Ubwari Peninsula of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The group of second-generation Burundi nationals living in Museke were rounded up on 29 December 2001 and forced onto boats travelling across Lake Tanganyika to the Rumonge area of western Burundi, Paul Stromberg, a spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN on Monday. Another 250 Burundians may also arrive during the next few days, he added.

RCD-Goma members told Museke residents to gather in a local church for a meeting, said Stromberg. Then, they were segregated according to nationality and the Burundi nationals were marched away to the boats. They were not permitted to take any belongings, he said, and there were reports that some people were beaten.

Following an assessment of the group last week, UNHCR has been providing shelter materials and food, and will be conducting detailed interviews with individual members this week to determine their legal status. The pertinent question was whether the Burundians legally constituted a group of refugees, or were illegal immigrants, Stromberg said. They may be definable as the latter, he said, as the first generation of Burundians who had settled on the Ubwari Peninsula had gone there in search of work as farmers and fisherman.

Under Article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees it would be illegal to expel the Burundians if they fit the definition of refugees, said Stromberg.

Precise reasons for the expulsion carried out by RCD-Goma remained unclear, he added.