RWANDA-POLITICS: Hutu Leaders Want Stronger U.N. Presence

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Feb 12 1996 (IPS) - Rwandese opposition leaders here want the United Nations to expand its peacekeeping force in Rwanda so that it can effectively monitor the return home of refugees whom Zaire has threatened to expel.

“UNAMIR should be strenghtened and posted to all corners of the republic to monitor the arrival and the settlement of the refugees,” Seth Seneashouga, a former minister of internal affairs in Rwanda, told IPS on Monday.

Financial constraints led to the reduction of the U.N. Assistance Mission In Rwanda (UNAMIR) from 1,800 to 1,200 peacekeepers three months ago.

“This number is not enough,” said Seneashouga. “We need at least 3,500 soldiers, along with NGOs (non-governmental organisations) on the ground to monitor the situation because the refugees do not trust the RPF (Rwandese Patriotic Front) soldiers”.

Seneashouga, now in self-imposed exile in the Kenyan capital, resigned from the RPF-led government in Kigali in August 1995 following allegations that the Rwandese Patriotic Army (RPA) was indiscriminately killing Hutus, the ethnic group to which he and 85 percent of Rwandans belong.

The RPA, made up mainly of minority Tutsis, invaded Rwanda from neighbouring Uganda in 1990. It ousted an extremist Hutu regime in July 1994, thus ending three months of mass murders in which up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered.

Following the RPA’s victory, more than 1.5 million Hutus fled to Zaire, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya.

“And, as they are beginning to settle in Zaire, they are told to pack their bags and head home,” said another former Hutu official, who refused to be named.

Zaire’s Interior Minister Gustave Malumba said recently that the refugee camps in eastern Zaire would be closed successively until all their one million occupants had gone home.

He said the operation, which would start soon, was designed to speed up a flagging voluntary repatriation programme. His government is currently locked in talks with aid agencies and Rwandese refugee leaders over the issue.

Malumba, who is also deputy prime minister, said a 1,500-strong Zairean force formed last year would maintain law and order inside the camps while another group of Zairean soldiers would protect refugees entering Rwanda on foot.

“It’s unrealistic,” said the Hutu leader. “I don’t know why Zaire is doing this.

“People are scared. They need an assurance that their lives will not be in danger once they return home. They’re convinced that they will be better off under a U.N. peacekeeping force than under the RPF forces”.

Adds Seneashouga: “The problem is not only repatriating refugees, but we also have 40,000 soldiers of the former government which have fled to neighbouring countries, especially to Zaire. What do you do with them ?”

However, Desire Joe Bizimana, a Nairobi-based analyst on Rwanda and Burundi, does not feel that the answer lies in inviting foreign forces to Rwanda. “It will only exacerbate the already volatile political situation in the country,” he told IPS on Monday.

“The problems in Rwanda, and indeed in Burundi, do not require the United Nations. Just look at how the U.N. messed up in Somalia,” he said.

Bizimana feels the people of Rwanda and Burundi — which has the same ethnic mix as Rwanda and is also in a state of political turmoil — can resolve their problems if they are left alone. “They have been living together from time immemorial. They know their problems better than outsiders”.

He thinks a committee made up of former presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Jimmy Carter of the United States along with Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa would do a better job at arbitration in Rwanda and Burundi than the United Nations or the Organisation of Africa Unity, which has some 60 observers on the ground in Burundi.

“They are highly respected persons and can be accepted by the people of Burundi and Rwanda,” he said.

Bizimana believes that Zaire’s action to close the camps is tantamount to forcing the former Rwandan government forces and militias to speed up their reorganisation and invade Rwanda.

“If that’s the idea, I don’t think it will work,” he says. “The Hutu extremists are still in a state of shock. They are not prepared. And they will lose the war if they decide to fight now.”