IRIN focus on Rwandan refugees in Tanzania

Eight years after the Rwandan genocide of 1994, there are approximately 25,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees living in camps in Ngara District, western Tanzania. Both the Rwandan and the Tanzanian governments are keen to see the repatriation of all of these refugees. At the same time, however, the case of each individual Rwandan refugee case is currently assessed by the Tanzanian authorities, which give refugee status to over 99 percent of them. The message from the Rwandan government to the refugees is that the situation is conducive to their return. "We are calling them to come back and work together to rebuild our country, which was devastated by the genocide," Abdul Karim Harelimana, Chairman of the Joint Commission for Repatriation and Reintegration of Rwandan Refugees, told IRIN. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) considers the residual refugee cases in Tanzania to be "very difficult". These were people for whom it would not be simple to return, a UNHCR spokeswoman, Ivana Unluova, told IRIN. Therefore, UNHCR, which is organising and facilitating the return of the refugees, continues to insist on the voluntary nature of the repatriation. Since the beginning of 2002, just over 1,000 Rwandan refugees have gone home with the assistance of UNHCR. In the last couple of months, the numbers have dropped significantly, with the weekly convoys in April carrying as few as between 24 and 62, totalling only 156 for the month. Meanwhile, 511 new refugees have arrived in the camps since the beginning of the year. A UNHCR official confirmed to IRIN that rumours about a possible forced repatriation of the refugees were circulating among the Rwandans. The precedent set by the "massive repatriation" in 1996, when "the refugee camps were surrounded by the army with guns and sticks, and when refugees were beaten" and forced to depart, had left an indelible mark on the collective memory. "Due to what happened in 1996, even now refugees are worried about what may happen," one refugee told IRIN. Because of these fears, for the last six months a steady trickle had been leaving the camps and going to surrounding countries such as Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya and especially Uganda, said the UNHCR official. The Ugandan government was widely perceived by refugees to offer a better deal than the Tanzanian government, because in Uganda they were given land to work on, whereas in Tanzania refugees were strictly confined to the camps. Another UNHCR official added that if it should occur that the Rwandans were ordered to go home, "they would turn into Burundians overnight" -- meaning that in order to avoid forced repatriation, they would temporarily leave the refugee camps, then return, re-registering as Burundians, who are allowed to remain in Tanzania. Such incidences had already happened in the past, he confirmed. UNWILLING TO GO HOME: In the Lukole B refugee camp in Ngara, several Rwandans told IRIN why they were not prepared to go home. "The Tutsis are dominating the Hutus in Rwanda. If you are in a bar, and a Tutsi demands that you offer him a drink - you have to do it. If you don't, you will see. He can make a dossier about you and allege you committed genocide. Then you will face problems. The dossier will be respected and taken seriously," said one man. A woman said she would not go home, because there was no peace. "When I was there, I saw the problems in the prisons. I used to visit two of them to bring food to relatives. But after seeing how people were being dumped in the prisons, I was scared and fled in 1998." "People who were well off were being attacked during the night. They used bullets for the men, but would not waste the bullets on the women. For women and children they used tools to knock their heads," she continued. "My aunt, uncle and their eight children were killed in Birenga commune. My uncle Raphael was a strong businessman. He used to invite the army to have drinks with him. One day, they said they would come, so he prepared everything. He invited them to eat and drink. Then they left, but came back during the night in an army vehicle. They shot him dead and used hoes to kill my aunt and eight cousins. Afterwards they stole all the money in the house." "They were killed because of their riches," she added. "Another family I know, of 20 people, were killed because they were well off. They were killed on the spot at a family party they had." She added that prominent leaders were still fleeing from Rwanda, but could not mention any names. Asked why he did not consider Rwanda to be safe to return to, one man said: "There are still people who are fleeing, and also those being imprisoned without trial in Rwanda. Some prominent leaders are escaping [from] the country. We hear this from the radio and from people who have escaped themselves." Another refugee told IRIN that it was not a good time to go back home. He said repatriating "would be very painful" and that he was still hoping he could stay in Tanzania. "Firstly, if I repatriate, I will have a problem with my wife's family, because I am a Hutu and she is Tutsi. My wife would be unable to testify about what she witnessed during the genocide, because she is married to a Hutu. If she did so, I would get into trouble from the Hutu community. They would ask why I married a Tutsi who is testifying against them." "Secondly, I have a house, big farm and other properties. I can't get them back because there is a Tutsi living there now, who repatriated from Uganda. When I was in Rwanda in 1995, he used various methods to have me put in jail. He accused me of killing my wife's 'real' husband and stealing her." "Thirdly, for a man like me married to a Tutsi, it is very dangerous for us. It creates disharmony within a family." He said his wife had already received threats to her life 1997, and that if ever insecurity occurred in the camps in Tanzania, people knew she was a Tutsi. "There is always the risk," he said. GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY: Gasana Ndoba, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission in Rwanda, told IRIN that it was untrue that Rwandan refugees in exile were presumed to be guilty of committing crimes during the 1994 genocide. "Of course there have been arrests after refugees have returned from exile, but there is no automatic presumption of guilt about those who come back." "The judicial system is not perfect, but it is certain that the attitude of public institutions is to welcome the refugees back, and to help them to resettle. There are of course imperfections in the system, but there is no pattern of systematically arresting those coming back from exile. "I think such beliefs are related to the circumstances of the refugees who left the country in 1994. This was organised by those who planned, implemented and executed the genocide. They forced or managed to persuade many people who bore no responsibilty at all to go with them into exile, so they could hide among them. The same leaders still have an influence on the refugees," Ndoba said. Asked about the accusations relating to extrajudicial revenge killings of Hutus in Rwanda, he said: "One must be reasonable. In the post-genocide period, there was no organised state or judiciary in place. There were no professional structures and no nongovernmental agencies working in the field of human rights, so the climate was not favourable to professional justice. There were abuses which must be acknowledged, but with time and organisation of the state these are becoming rare and exceptional. They may still happen, but there is no specific targeting of refugees or ex-refugees in those matters." Harelimana told IRIN that the Rwandan government did not believe that the refugees still in exile were genocide perpetrators. He said of the estimated 25,000 refugees in Tanzania, probably 100 were either intimidators or ex-soldiers who had been involved in the genocide. "There are intimidators working in the camps, spreading propaganda, who were involved in the genocide and who are using the others as human shields." He said the Tanzanian government was working with the government of Rwanda to identify the genocide perpetrators in the camps, and that some people had been arrested there. Realising that they were being investigated, others had fled to Zambia and Uganda. There were also some who continued to live in the refugee camps, but had not registered and were therefore very difficult to identify. He acknowledged that in 1995 and 1996, some soldiers had "gone astray" and taken revenge on Hutu civilians in Rwanda. These were individual cases, however, and the government had taken action against the perpetrators. GACACA JUSTICE SYSTEM: On 8 April, the training began of almost 255,000 judges who will preside in Rwanda's gacaca courts - a form of popular or traditional justice for those accused of involvement in genocide. All but the highest category of genocide crimes will be judged by these courts. Rwandan law divides genocide suspects into four categories, to be judged at four administrative levels by the gacaca courts. Category four consists of those accused of looting or destroying victims' property during the genocide; category three of those defined as "the person who has committed or became accomplice of serious attacks without the intention of causing death to victims"; category two of those accused of killing; and category one of those accused of rape and other sexual torture. Those assigned to category one will be sentenced to death if found guilty. Following the training, due to last for six weeks, pilot trials are due to take place, after which it is hoped that the gacaca system will begin operating in all parts of the country. Asked about his hopes for the new justice system, one refugee said: "I don't know how it operates. If it operates well, I will be able to go and stand against anyone who charges me." "Gacaca is not operating yet. It needs time for it to start, so we can see if it is doing its work properly. Then we will repatriate," he said. "We will closely follow the news about gacaca on the radio, and we will also expect to be given news from UNHCR," said another. "If gacaca is working properly, all of us will be pleased to go back home to face the challenge of those who say we are all killers. If it doesn't, nobody will think of going back," another commented.