Rwanda & Congo Kinshasa
Rwanda has expelled 6,000 Congolese refugees

afrol News, 10 September - The government of Rwanda is continuing to expel Congolese refugees against their will, the United Nations laments. According to new information, 6,000 refugees had already been sent back to areas controlled by the Rwanda-backed Congolese rebel group RCD-Goma.

- Continuing a practice which the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has condemned, the Government of Rwanda has forced 6,000 refugees to return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the agency reported today.

Mr Janowski urged the Rwandan authorities to stop this practice. "The movement organised jointly by the government of Rwanda and the rebel group Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD-Goma) has not been voluntary, with many refugees reporting pressure by Rwandan authorities for them to leave the camps," spokesman Janowski told the press in Geneva.

Last Thursday, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers had written to Rwandan President Paul Kagame to express concern about the forced returns, calling for an end to the operation, which he termed "neither voluntary nor sustainable."

The number of people returning under pressure had however declined late last week following a visit to both camps by Rwanda's Minister of State for Local Government and a UNHCR official who told the refugees that they did not have to leave the country, according to reports by the UN. 

UNHCR also had assured the refugees that the agency would continue to provide assistance to those who did not wish to return home, and that if they eventually did, they would also receive aid. This had caused the intimidated refugees to resist Rwandan repatriation pressure.

The assurances by the UN agency came in response to complaints that local officials had warned refugees that the current return operation was their last chance to return home with assistance. Some refugees had also said they had been threatened with forcible removal should they decline to leave. Such statements "clearly indicate that these return movements are being carried out under duress," Mr Lubbers noted last week. 

Meanwhile, the refugees who have returned - mostly women and children - were being housed at a transit centre "in three old factory buildings without doors, windows or proper roofing," Mr Janowski complained.

UNHCR estimates that Rwanda is host to 35,800 refugees, mainly from the war-ravaged neighbour country; Congo Kinshasa. 

Sources: Based on UN sources and afrol archives

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