In the last article in this series, we saw how both the Kayibanda and Habyarimana regimes worked tooth and nail to frustrate Rwandan refugees in countries of asylum. This piece epitomises the systematic strategy by the regime in Rwanda to erase its own refugees. All refugees who returned were seen as spies of Inyenzi. Returnees were mistrusted. The burgomasters were tasked to watch all families that received them. Refugees were considered as “fundamentally evil”. Those who had fled in 1959 were regarded as the worst. The maliciousness of the refugees was graded. The act of hosting returning refugees was considered a serious crime of complicity with the enemy. Despite that mistrust and surveillance of the returnees, many Rwandans risked crossing the border to give supplies to their relatives, friends or neighbours who lived in the neighbouring countries. Many cases of refugees, notably in North Kivu, who were sponsors of young Rwandan Hutus are known. They facilitated their access to secondary school education. The borders of Rwanda and Zaire and the anti-Tutsi policy of the two Republics did not put an end to the relationship between the Hutu and Tutsi refugees. Although the Rwandan government had since 1964 requested that refugees be settled in their countries of asylum, it did nothing to help them. On the contrary, its policy consisted of making life for them very difficult even in those countries. Rwandan embassies watched refugees closely in those countries. In 1973, the Habyarimana government put in place a joint ministerial commission of Rwanda-Uganda for the repatriation of Rwandan refugees. The commission met only once from July 21 to 28, 1974 because some political personalities were ferociously opposed to the return of refugees. A circular issued on October 25, 1973, reiterated the previous instructions on the re-integration of the refugees. It all depended on the Governor who also depended on the Minister of Internal Affairs. A brochure published in 1979 specified the procedure for return. The refugees had to express in writing their desire to return. The request had to be addressed to the country of origin through the UN High Commission for Refugees and the host government. The refugee whose request was rejected would stay in the country of exile or look for another. Milton Obote’s government in Uganda sent some 60,000 refugees to Rwanda by force. Those who were wanted by the government in Kigali were captured and imprisoned. Others were killed in 1983. One example is that of Gahitsi who had been a chief in Rwanda way back in time. The Rwandan government only accepted 1,026 of them, who, according to it, met the conditions of being Rwandan. This attitude shocked the concerned refugees and even many other Rwandan nationals. The government in Kigali also fomented division among refugees or caused conflicts among the people. They supported associations which fought the Tutsi in the neighbouring countries. There were associations like Magrivi in North Kivu in eastern DR Congo and the Abanyarwanda–Bahutu Association in Uganda. In 1982, President Habyarimana decided that refugees had to settle in their countries of asylum because Rwanda was full. In 1986, the central committee of the ruling MRND party revisited this issue and suggested that refugees be naturalised. When the refugees rejected that alternative, the Rwandan government put in place a “special commission to look into problems of Rwandan emigrants on 9th February 1989.” In May 1990, this commission published its first report entitled Rwanda and the Refugees problem: Context, history and solutions. Two solutions were proposed i.e. repatriation and naturalization. These involved settling refugees in their countries of asylum. But in connection with repatriation, the report said: “The Government of Rwanda recognizes that repatriation is the ideal solution (...) but it imposes a condition of guaranteeing the means of survival by the refugees themselves or by the international community”. This condition did not differ from the one imposed in the 1986 declaration of MRND on the same issue. Until 1990, the political class did not consider refugees as Rwandan. The government prevented them from returning. And by destabilising them wherever they lived in refugee camps, the Kigali government wanted them to die in absolute poverty and to be wiped out completely. It was the protocol on refugees signed in 1993 during the Arusha negotiations that recognized refugees as Rwandans with full rights.
