In what has been described as putting the cart before the horse, the Kinshasa regime says they have started the process to repatriate Kinyarwanda-speaking refugees who have been living in refugee camps in Rwanda for more than two decades now. This sudden interest by the Kinshasa regime raises eyebrows because everyone knows that the eastern DRC is not a conducive environment for the repatriation of refugees who fled persecution and atrocities committed by the state machinery. Moreover, the North and South Kivu regions are more dangerous and insecure for the Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese today, more than the situation was when they were forced to flee.
The Kinshasa regime deputy prime minister, who also serves as the foreign minister Christopher Lutundula Apala, is said to be in Geneva where he is expected to kickstart the process of repatriation during a meeting with UNHCR officials. The question is; considering the prevailing situation in DRC, will the UNHCR give in to the political games of the Kinshasa regime?
Talk of refugees’ repatriation is just a political gimmick. The more than 80,000 (the number has since swelled to double this figure after FDLR and other armed groups allied to the FARDC started systematic massacres of Tutsi communities in North and South Kivu) refugees who have been living in Rwanda for more than two decades are Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese who ran away from state persecution and attacks by the FDLR and other tribal militias allied to the Kinshasa regime who are still active in North and South Kivu.
For the Kinshasa regime to suddenly show overzealous interest in repatriating the refugees is not only suspicious but also worrying because there is a genocide ongoing, and more Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese have been displaced since last year due to massacres by the FARDC and their allied armed groups who include FDLR. Does the Kinshasa regime want to repatriate even those who fled before so that they can kill every Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese to leave no survivors?
It is envisaged that the tripartite meeting that will determine the repatriation will face challenges because the UNHCR has the responsibility not to repatriate refugees when they know they will be exposed to danger. North and South Kivu are highly volatile areas right now, and the conditions that led to the fleeing of the refugees two decades ago have escalated threefold.
What is apparent is the fact that Tshisekedi wants to play pre-election campaign politics with the refugees, and he doesn’t care whether they are massacred immediately after they step back into their villages, as long as the international community will have noted that repatriation of refugees ‘back to their homes’ had been effected and this would boost his eroded credibility.
Also, the Kinshasa regime speaks of conducting a ‘thorough screening’ of the refugees to determine who among the refugees is a genuine Congolese national, which further heightens the suspicions about the intentions of Tshisekedi and his cronies. Another possibility is that Tshisekedi wants to cherry-pick a few among the refugees whom he will use to steal the elections after which they will be at the mercy of the murderous FDLR and other terrorist armed groups allied to FARDC.