Congolese Bagogwe consider returning home

Tens of thousands of Congolese Tutsis, members of the Bagogwe community who have been living in Rwanda as refugees since the early 1990s, are soon expected to return to North Kivu province in eastern DRC, according to a senior official of RCD-Goma. “These people are Congolese; they have been living in exile and have a right to return home. They can stay in their homes like any other Congolese. Our army and the local defence units will ensure that nobody causes problems [like those] that led to ethnic strife in the Kivus,” the official told IRIN. Some 35,000 to 40,000 of the Bagogwe had been living as refugees in Rwanda for some years now, the Permanent Secretary in Rwanda’s Ministry of Local Government, Protas Musoni, told IRIN on Tuesday. “We got information that there has been some agitation within the [Bagogwe] camps, arguing for people to return home. Some of them came to my office last week. I advised them to establish the security situation back home before returning; otherwise we are not to stop anyone from returning home,” he added. Humanitarian sources in North Kivu told IRIN that the return of this Tutsi community could spark a repeat of inter-ethnic conflicts that took place in North and South Kivu in 1992-‘93. “These people will be seen as an extension of the Rwandan regime to Kivu, and they will be targeted by most local communities and the [Rwandan Hutu] Interahamwe militias. The situation is already volatile; the exodus will make it worse,” the humanitarian official added. The Rwandan army has been fighting ex-FAR {Forces armees rwandaises) and Interahamwe militias in the Kivus since 1996, after the dismantlement of refugee camps housing over one million Rwandan refugees.