IRIN Focus on the Interahamwe in North Kivu

Joseph Bizimana lies on a stretcher at a military camp near the eastern DRC town of Sake, grimacing from pain due to a bullet wound in his right thigh. The 26 year-old Rwandan is a member of the notorious Interahamwe militia, widely held responsible for unleashing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. He was captured after a shootout between the Interahamwe and a combined unit of Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) troops and their Rwandan backers at Sake on the night of 9 July. The Interahamwe had overrun a displaced people’s camp, on their way to the town, killing at least 40 people. “We set off from the Virunga park [on the Rwanda-DRC border] with a mission to take drugs and radio batteries from the shop [in Sake],” Bizimana told IRIN. “But the people [in the camp] raised the alarm, and our commander told us to silence them. In the process many people died.” Bizimana, who was attached to the Interahamwe’s “intelligence section”, says he left his home area in Kigali Rural prefecture in June 1998 to join the militia. “The bosses [Interahamwe commanders] had agents who went from home to home telling young men to go and fight for their country.” These young men, such as Bizimana, represent a new generation of Interahamwe who did not take part in the genocide. “Our main objective is to organise and fight all the way to Kigali,” he explained. “Our commanders keep on reminding us that Rwanda belongs to our grandfathers.” The Rwandan authorities dismiss the apparent capacity of the Interahamwe to attract new recruits from within Rwanda. “Definitely any attempt by the Interahamwe to spread their genocide worries us, but I don’t think they are attracting new recruits because every Rwandan knows they have no future,” Rwandan presidential adviser on security matters, Major Emmanuel Ndahiro, told IRIN. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that the Interahamwe recruited young refugees after the camps in eastern DRC were dismantled in 1996. Rwandan commanders estimate that in North Kivu there are three battalions of Interahamwe, each with 2500-3000 troops, spread between the areas of Masisi, Walikale and Rutshuru. “We regularly engage them but over the last one month they have been moving in small groups, targeting civilians for looting and killing,” Lieutenant-Colonel Alex Ibabaza, the Rwandan deputy brigade commander in charge of the border area, told IRIN. The RCD-Goma Fifth Brigade carries out joint operations with the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) against the Interahamwe. Two ex-Rwandan government (ex-FAR) army officers - named as Major Haguma and Colonel Ndegeyeika - are said to be commanding the Interahamwe militia in North Kivu, according to Ibabaza. Joseph Bizimana, the captured Interahamwe, said the militia’s main source of supplies “are air drops from the Congolese government”. “Last month, we got two deliveries by air in Walikale, which were uniforms and ammunition.” The Interahamwe have also acquired radio communication equipment, Bizimana added. The Congolese government, for its part, has strongly denied supplying the Interahamwe militia forces. A major source of income for the Interahamwe is reportedly through the sale of gold, which they mine in the Walikale area. “We sell the gold through Congolese middlemen who pay us in American dollars,” Bizimana said. “The money is sent to our supporters abroad to buy supplies.” Asked about coordination with the local Congolese Mayi-Mayi militia, he replied: “Meetings are organised between our people and the Mayi-Mayi when there are operational matters to be discussed. Otherwise we do not involve them in our politics.” The Interahamwe and other rebel groups based in North Kivu are taking advantage of differences between former allies Uganda and Rwanda, created by fighting between their troops in the DRC’s third city of Kisangani last month, to operate freely. “The Mayi-Mayi are a combination of local tribes claiming to fight for the protection of their land, and they suspect Rwanda of harbouring territorial ambitions in Kivu. They think that by allying themselves with the Interahamwe they will chase the Rwandans from this area,” said Kaspari Musema, a local chief from Rutshuru. Rwandan forces in the area are involved in a mobilisation campaign aimed at isolating the Interahamwe from the local population. “We are saying that our presence in Congo and in particular North Kivu is aimed at fighting the Interahamwe,” said Patrick Mazimhaka, the Rwandan presidential adviser on the Great Lakes. “We have no problem with any Congolese so long as they do not actively support our enemies.” Joseph Bizimana, the captured Interahamwe, says he would like to be forgiven by his captors and return to Rwanda to see his parents. “After that I would join the [Rwandan] army because I have seen my former friends who used to be with us in the bush working with the army,” he said. The Rwandan authorities say they have already integrated 15,000 Interahamwe and ex-FAR troops into their ranks. “In a few months, after he is completely healed, Joseph Bizimana will join us like his colleagues who are now helping us to track down the hardcore elements in the Interahamwe and ex-FAR,” Rwandan commander Lieutenant-Colonel Alex Ibabaza said.