wfn.org | Rwanda Plays Role in Zaire

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3293 notes).

Note 3291 by UMNS on Nov. 15, 1996 at 16:26 Eastern (3329 characters).

SEARCH:Rwanda, Zaire, refugees
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CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                         577(10-21-71B){3291}
          New York (212)870-3803                     Nov. 18, 1996

Current Zaire crisis is
extension of Rwandan war

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- Rwanda plays a far greater role in the
eastern Zaire crisis than current news reports suggest, according
to a United Methodist from that region.
     The Rev. Ngoy D. Mulunda-Nyanga labels the situation "an
exportation of the Rwandan conflict within the Zairian borders."
     Mulunda-Nyanga, executive secretary of international affairs
for the All Africa Conference of Churches, spoke about the Zaire
crisis here Nov. 14 during a discussion sponsored by the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries and National Council of
Churches.
     He was joined by Mulegwa Zihindula, who runs a literacy
project in the Bukavu area, which was taken by a group of Tutsi
"rebels," the Banyamulenge, at the end of October.
     Zihindula agreed that the current fighting is really a
continuation of the Rwandan civil war. "This whole story about the
Banyamulenge is a myth," he declared, adding that it was "a fact"
that Rwandan soldiers are fighting in Zaire.
     The history of the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes
in Rwanda dates back to colonial times when German and then
Belgium rulers elevated the Tutsis over the Hutus. In 1959, a
revolution uprooted the Tutsi monarchy and installed a Hutu
government.
     In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, an army composed mostly
of Tutsi exiles, invaded from Uganda and started a war. Sporadic
fighting and negotiations followed, with a ceasefire declared in
August, 1993. But fighting started anew on April 6, 1994, after
the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi, both Hutus, died in a
suspicious plane crash.
     Hutu extremists mounted a genocide campaign to rid Rwanda of
the Tutsi. Before the Rwandan Patriotic Front gained control and
pushed the Hutus from power, an estimated 800,000 had been
massacred. Hundreds of thousands of Rwandans fled their country in
fear, creating an instant refugee crisis.
     Among the nearly 1 million Hutu refugees who have lived in
camps in Zaire's eastern corridor are former members of the
militia responsible for the genocide. And, despite recent efforts
toward repatriation, Rwanda doesn't want any of them back,
according to Mulunda-Nyanga.
     "The Rwandan government is using the magnitude of the
genocide to hide their agenda," he said. "The agenda of the war is
to displace the refugees [away from the border]. Rwanda is not
ready to receive the refugees."
     The Banyamulenge were used as an excuse to start the war, he
claimed.
     Zihindula reported that 600 intellectuals, including a
Catholic archbishop, were targeted and killed by the Tutsis when
they invaded Bukavu. The archbishop and others, aware that Rwanda
still laid claim to the Kivu province in Zaire, had started "The
Movement for the Defense of Kivu."
     Kivu is attractive, he said, because it is the largest source
of gold in Zaire, which is the world's third largest producer of
gold.
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