By IPS Correspondents
NEW YORK, Aug 11 2007 (IPS)

An innocent child, no more than four years old, stands alone sobbing in a sunlit field scattered with torn and smouldering tents. Around him lay scores of human bodies; murder victims who were stabbed, shot and burnt. This is the scene that greeted a Human Rights Watch researcher on the morning of Aug. 14, 2004.

The night before, 166 people had been killed, woken up by the clamour of their attackers, men, women and even children, pounding on drums, blowing whistles, ringing bells and singing joyfully about the crimes they were about to commit.

They were Hutu rebels, invading a United Nations refugee camp in an attempt to exterminate their long-term enemies, the Banyamulenge Tutsis from the Southern Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Tutsis had been moved to the U.N. Gatumba camp located over the border from neighbouring Burundi, where many had been living.

This relocation was an attempt to secure the safety of the Banyamulenge Tutsi people as ethnic conflicts raged in the Congo, predominately between the Tutsis and Hutus.

The Banyamulenge Tutsis originated in Rwanda, and had migrated to the Congo in the 1880s, with some later moving to Burundi. Although Tutsis were long a minority in Rwanda’s population, tensions with the Hutu escalated dramatically under German colonisation in the late 19th century. Tutsis were held up by the Europeans and Catholic Church officials as a “superior ethnic group” and placed in positions of local administrative power.

Although the Gatumba massacre was not nearly on the same scale, its impact cannot be overestimated, particularly for the more than 600 survivors, 116 of whom suffered physical maiming and injury. All, no doubt, possess emotional scars.

Three days after the carnage, the U.S. Department of State issued a release asserting that “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack that took place on Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi on August 13, 2004.”

Pressed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over the “vicious attack on an already vulnerable population of refugees, many of them women and children,” the U.S. agreed to take 525 Gatumba survivors. Their new residences stretch from Seattle, Washington to Concord, New Hampshire.

A number have been situated in Albany, New York, where they were taken under the wing of the local Emmaus Church. The multicultural congregation with people from countries such as Iran, the Philippines and Jamaica were happy to help the refugees settle into the local community, sending some of their Kenyan members to meet the Congolese families at the airport and assist with their moving into local accommodations.

Reverend Dr. Denise Stringer noted that the Gatumba refugees’ religious views assisted their transaction into the neighbourhood. “They fit in instantly because they are Methodist,” she said.

The Emmaus Church was a particularly good place of worship due to its eclectic congregation and use of languages such as French, Urdu and Swahili in its services. Once the refugees settled in, they established an African choir – which inspired much excitement among the Church attendees.

Stringer says they are “a wonderful choir – they sing so beautifully. Even though we don’t know the words, we understand.”

Olivier Mandevu, a survivor of the Gatumba genocide and president of the Gatumba Refugees Survivors Foundation, said Emmaus “helped us spiritually” and added that the local community has generously aided the refugees by supplying provisions such as clothes.

Third-generation Christians, the Banyamulenge identify strongly with the tribulations of Old Testament Jews and their gospel singing brings some solace from their memories of Gatumba.

This weekend, relocated survivors will come from over 15 states to visit Voorheesville, New York for the third annual Gatumba Genocide Memorial. Private time will be spent between the survivors.

“They comfort one another,” said Mandevu, who seems to understand that those who did not witness the horrific events of Gatumba cannot provide support to the survivors in the same way fellow refugees can.

When asked whether the memorial would stir up negative memories, Mandevu is quick to insist, “The memorial is very important. The mourning is very necessary for healing the wounds.”

Mandevu and other members of the Gatumba Refugee Survivors Foundation say that while the memorial is partly about grieving for those killed, it is also an attempt to highlight the absence of any criminal action against the perpetrators.

“The killers have not been put to trial,” Mandevu said, his words saturated with anger and frustration. “Nothing has been done to stop them, arrest them and put them to trial.”

Meanwhile, the recent abolition of the death penalty in Rwanda is expected to result in the prosecution of some genocide suspects.

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