#ShareTheJourney – Catch 22 and Congolese Refugees
In the photo above, a translator shares the comments of one of the adults taking part in the town hall style meeting we took part in while visiting the UNHCR camp. This and the other photos below of Gihembe Refugee Camp were taken during our visit by Wendy Karr Johnson.
Living in a United Nations High Commission on Refugees Camp (UYNHCR) in Rwanda, far from either their home in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or the capital of Kigali, more than 14,000 refugees fill Gihembe Camp. They are stuck in limbo due to their particular history which both gives them claim to citizenship in Rwanda and DRC and also virtually assures the refugees of Gihembe will never again permanently settle in either of those nations.
On our Episcopal Migration Ministries Pilgrimage to East Africa, the eight pilgrims and staff used the lens of the people living in Gihembe to learn about issues facing refugee populations across the globe. And in a town hall style meeting in Gihembe, we came face to face with the deep frustration born of just shy of two decades in the camp. More than 100 adult residents of Gihembe Refugee Camp filed into the plastic chairs in the large, open windowed, concrete floored meeting room. They came to meet our group and a UNHCR staff member explained at the outset how we could not help address any specific camp concerns or address their particular issues with resettlement. We were there as one of nine refugee agencies that assists the US States Department in its role of settling refugees according to targets approved by Congress. We could speak to life beyond the camp and encourage refugees taking advantage of English classes, school for their children, and other opportunities made available by the UNHCR.
Understandably, this proved frustrating to those in attendance. Their only concern was when can they leave Gihembe. Many made it clear that their preferred option is to return to the provinces in the DRC where they lived prior to the Congolese War. Like any of us would likely feel if unimaginable horrors descended on our current homes, what we would most want is to return to life as it was prior to the conflict. Others were in routine contact with friends and relatives already resettled oversees and they most wanted to join them in the safety of a new country, often the United States.
Overseeing this camp is a very dedicated UNHCR staff. We spent time with some key staff and saw first hand their professionalism, dedication, and compassion. But the problems faced are not easily resolved as the weight of history bears down on the situation.
Why Refugees in Gihembe Can’t Go Home Again
A very brief sketch of their history shows the particular issue of statelessness which is the crux of the problem. When Germans colonized Rwanda beginning in 1895, they found three groups of people present—Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. The Twa, sometimes referred to as pygmies, were the people of the forest and they existed in the smallest number by far. The Hutu were identified as those shorter and darker color skin persons living largeley as subsistence farming. The Tutsi (also known as Watutsi) were taller and usually has a lighter skin color. European colonists defined “Tutsi” as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical feature of a longer nose, or longer neck, commonly associated with the Tutsi. Historians believe that the Tutsis had governed Rwanda since the Bronze Age. First the Germans and then the Belgians who replaced them after World War I, kept this system and allowed only the Tutsi to be educated and only they could participate in the colonial government. These policies engendered resentment among the majority Hutu population.
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In 1959, the Rwandan King, Mutara III, died after being treated for a headache by a Belgian physician in Bujumbura on the way back from a consultation with Belgian officials, in what Rwandan conspiracy theorists consider to have been an assassination. The king was a member of the Tutsi tribe. A wave of anti-Tutsi violence ensued and from 1959 to 1961, Tutsi fled from the oppression in large numbers. This is when the residents of Gihembe or their parents or grandparents left Rwanda. They settled in the Eastern Provinces (mostly North and South Kivu) in the Belgian Congo. In time, these refugees were given citizenship in what became Zaire as President Mobutu Sese Seko needed voter support in that region.
The tide turned once more in November 1996, when Mobutu’s government issued an order forcing Tutsis to leave Zaire on penalty of death. What followed as other African nations joined the fight became known as ‘Africa’s world war’ and would be responsible for the deaths of around three million people. Rape became endemic and staying in Zaire meant all but certain death. The former Rwandans living up until now as Zairan citizens fled once more across the border into Rwanda. The UNHCR set up a Mudende Refugee Camp, but that camp was too near the border and the UNHCR knew it. They were making efforts to move the refugees when hundreds of refugees (some claim as many as 3,000 people) were killed in multiple attacks on the camp between August and December 1996 by the group responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The camp at Gihembe was created to move the Mudende survivors to a relatively safe location. The refugees have now been there for 19 years. Though getting good support from that government for the camp, these refugees are not welcome to repatriate to Rwanda as they are viewed there as Congolese. They can likewise not repatriate to the DRC as the area not only remains volatile, but their land and houses have been confiscated by others and they are now considered Rwandans, not Congolese by the DRC. Though they have claim to citizenship in both Rwanda and the DRC, the group is stateless.
What next for the Congolese Refugees?
The UNHCR and its participating states have seen the Catch 22 that has held these refugees on a Rwandan hilltop for nearly two decades. The have agreed that at least 50,000 Congolese refugees would be submitted for resettlement from 2012 to 2017, making the Congolese one of the largest resettlement operations currently underway. Everyone in Gihembe is in contact, often through Facebook, with persons already settled in a third country. While some resettle in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands, the large majority of the Congolese refugees will be resettled to the United States. Episcopal Migration Ministries and the others of the nine agencies which work with resettling refugees in the U.S. Episcopal Migration Ministries, its affiliates, and church partners provide assistance to arriving refugees as they adjust to their new communities and begin building for the future. While our meeting this group serves as an example of one of the many refugee crises around the world, this is one we have assisted with and will continue work on in the coming years. Due to security concerns and other issues, not everyone in that meeting room at Gihembe will be resettled. But thousands will find there way out of that hilltop camp to a new life.
Episcopalians can be a part of that story through co-sponsoring a Congolese refugee family and other refugees from across the globe with similar stories. Contact Episcopal Migration Ministries to find out how: episcopalmigrationministries.org.
Students look out the window of a sixth-grade classroom we visited in Gihembe’s 3,000-student school.
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