15 04 14 IRIN – Back to Rwanda

Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN

More than 12,000 FDLR fighters have disarmed and returned to Rwanda since 2002

Over the years, thousands of FDLR members and their dependants have
surrendered to the UN mission in DRC (MONUSCO), and returned to Rwanda.

And MONUSCO is continuing to help in the demobilization process, even as
its Force Intervention Brigade prepares to mount a major offensive
against the FDLR – now thought to number between 1,000 and 1,500
fighters – in conjunction with the DRC army.

Among those who gave up the fight recently is Henri* who spoke to IRIN
at a MONUSCO base in Goma, capital of North Kivu Province. 

“I was born in Bigogwe, in western Rwanda. We left the country at the
time of the genocide, the war between the Hutu and Tutsi.** I arrived in
DRC in 1994, at the age of two, on my mother’s back. My parents
installed themselves in Katoye, in Masisi Territory (in North Kivu
Province). That’s where they were killed by Mai-Mai militia.

“A Congolese grandmother who had taken in me and my parents kept me and
put me through school. But the FDLR wanted me. The old woman refused and
hid me. But one day, tired with their threats, she told them, [as a
Rwandan Hutu] ‘he’s your child after all. Take him!’ A commander took me
with him in the forest. I was seven years old.

“The first year, I had to find water and food. Then they gave me a Kalashnikov. I couldn’t refuse, or they would have killed me.

“They told me the FDLR wanted to return Hutus to power in Rwanda and
that if we dared go back there, we would all be killed, that [President
Paul] Kagame would kill us, that everyone who returned was killed. I
listened to them but told myself one day I would go back to see if I
would really be killed.

“In my group, there were a lot of genocidaires, old guys who told us
they couldn’t go back without being arrested. They said the genocide was
a war between the Hutu and the Tutsi, that they had killed Tutsi, but
after that, the Tutsi had killed them [Hutus] and that that was why they
had fled to Congo.

Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN

Preparing for battle: government troops are braced for an assault on the FDLR

“Before, the genocidaires said they wanted to overthrow Kagame. Now,
they tell us, `let those who want to return to Rwanda return to Rwanda;
let those who want to lay down their weapons lay down their weapons; let
those who want to join the Congolese army join the army’. A Rwandan
FDLR commander left to surrender with his men in Nyanzale and [I heard]
they joined the [DRC] army.

“I was promoted to sergeant at the age of 18. There were women fighters with us and many Congolese.

“We would protect Rwandan refugees from armed groups. No one could
attack them because we were with them. Every Monday, the refugees
brought food. It was willing compensation for our protection against
other armed groups.

“During operations I looted, but I did not rape. I killed our enemies,
not the population. Sometimes, when I think about this, I tell myself I
couldn’t do that again.

[The FDLR has been widely accused of gross violations of human rights in eastern DRC, including widespread rape].

“After several years, life became very hard. We had to march far in the
forest, for two days, to find a village or find food. I told myself it
was time to go back to Rwanda.

“I tried to escape twice, in December and January. The first time, I
left with my belongings and money, but I came across some Mai-Mai who
mugged me. I had to go back to the FDLR. They locked me up. I failed the
second time too and they whipped me. Then I told myself, this has to
stop.

“I surrendered to MONUSCO on Thursday 6 March at Mpati. I was treated
well and given something to eat. Four days later I was transferred to
Goma.

“I have two family members in Rwanda. I am going to see how to find them
and what I can do there. But I can’t join the military services in
Rwanda. That’s not good. I would rather work in a field.”

Julien’s testimony

Julien* was enrolled in the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD), a small
radical branch of the FDLR, until he too surrendered to MONUSCO.

“During the war [in Rwanda] between Hutu and Tutsi, things were not
good. Many people died. The RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi-led
rebellion led by now-President Paul Kagame] were killing Hutus at the
time. I was at school when the authorities killed my father: he was shot
in the abdomen.

“Soon after, I came to Masisi [territory, in North Kivu Province] alone
in 1999, passing through Virunga Province. We refugees were fed by the
local civilian population, under the coordination of the village chief.

“I joined the FDLR in 1999 to save my life. [The second Congo war was in
full swing at the time]. I stayed with Foca [FDLR’s armed wing] until
2005 when I joined RUD: Foca no longer wanted to attack Kigali, but RUD
was ready to do so.

“I never looted, only during operations. I never raped because our
military authorities said it was strictly forbidden to rape. If they
found out somebody had raped, they would kill them. I never killed, only
during the war.

Photo: Radio Okapi

Rwandan FDLR rebels in South Kivu Province in 2009

“I left RUD because my family called me and asked me to come back and
live with them. And also, in Congo, there was no peace, something I hope
to have when I get back [to Rwanda]. I don’t want to join the army. I
am tired of the army. I want to return to civilian life.

“I cannot identify anyone in particular as my father’s killer. But I
have no problem going back. On the other hand, I cannot forgive someone I
have never seen.

“We, the FDLR, want to lay down our guns to stop military activities. If
Kigali agrees, we will take the guns to the government, under the aegis
of the international community, of course.

“We want to show our good faith in participating in political life in
our country. If Kigali refuses, the FDLR will show up their bad faith
[in professing to be seeking an end to regional stability] . We are all
Rwandese and we all want to return to Rwanda to take part in politics.

[The Rwandan government has long refused to countenance any negotiations
with the FDLR because of their association with the genocide].

Christine’s testimony

Christine*, 30, sought refuge with hundreds of other Rwandan Hutu
families in North Kivu Province, where several armed groups operate,
among them some that are hostile to people from Rwanda.

“I was 10 when I left Rwanda. I was still young but I remember that we
fled because the RPF were arriving. It was being said that the RPF were
coming to kill our people, that they were killing everybody they met.

“[In the DRC] we went to Mugunga camp [west of Goma]. We stayed there
for more than a year with my Mum and my two brothers. We then went to
Lumbisi in Kalehe Territory [in South Kivu Province] because we had
relatives there.

“And then the problem of armed groups started, especially the Raia
Mutomboki who were pursuing all Kinyarwanda speakers. But I did not lose
any member of my family.” [According to the Usalama project, Raia
Mutomboki, (“outraged citizens”) is the largest armed body in South
Kivu, and was established in 2005 in response to FDLR massacres see: Armed groups in eastern DRC. 

“The FDLR warned us when there would be Raia Mutomboki attacks and we
alerted the others and fled. They were not asking for money because they
just wanted to protect us; but when they came to our home, we had to
give them some food. We welcomed them.

“In 2009, the DRC-Rwanda army operation Umoja Wetu  [“our unity”, in
Swahili] against the FDLR caused us problems because they [the FDLR
militias] fled into the mountains and we were left defenceless.

“To survive I became a farmer. My husband and two of my children died
due to sickness. I found myself in a difficult situation. Without peace
or a husband I longed to return to my motherland. I had close family
members there. They told me that there was peace there. 

“People had been informed that MONUSCO will launch an operation against
the FDLR. Some have returned [to Rwanda] as they are afraid. They know
that the security operation is coming and they are afraid that the FDLR
will be hunted down. It is one of the reasons that made them go back
[home], me too.

“My dream is to continue with farming to make a living.”

*not a real name

** International jurisprudence has
established that there was a systematic campaign to “destroy, in whole
or in part”, Rwanda’s Tutsis in 1994. Some Hutu groups continue to frame
the genocide in the context of the Tutsi insurgency of the time, as a
way to minimize the severity of the events.