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Olanrewaju.Ademola.Ojasanya
Joined: Oct 4, 2001
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SINS OF OUR FATHERS
January 17, 2002 - 09:31 AM
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As 13 year old Habakiama Theophile peers out of the window of the Russian built Ilyushin IL-76 transport, he cries for joy. Through a gap in the clouds he catches his first glimpse of Rwandan soil in nearly four years. "C'est Rwanda, Rwanda" he cries as his fellow travelers crowd around the window. For Habakiama and his 248 fellow orphans traveling on one of the first special repatriation flights organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the four year nightmare was coming to an end.
A mere 24 hours earlier he had emerged from the jungle south of the eastern Zairian town of Kisangani, starving and exhausted. He, along with 80 000 mostly Rwandan Hutu refugees, had fled four days earlier, deep in to the jungle to escape the wrath of local Zairian villagers and soldiers who had attacked their camps. Habakiama was, one of the lucky ones. He had survived. The attack on the three Rwandan refugee camps on the road south of Kisangani, in late April was the tragic epilogue to the perhaps one of the darkest chapters in Africa's history: Rwanda's genocide.
His ordeal had begun in June 1994 when he fled the Rwandan capital, Kigali, with his parents, who no doubt feared retribution for the genocidal slaughter of those dark months. By the time he got to Goma he, and tens of thousands of children like him, had been orphaned.
In the years that followed he was cared for by the various International NGO's that operated in eastern Zaire.
Then when the civil war broke out in eastern Zaire in December 1996, he was among the final group of over 200 000 Rwandans, who for reasons that defy mere mortals, chose not to go home, but fled west, deep into the jungles of Zaire. Five months and 1000kms later, he was among the final group of 80 000 survivors who arrived on the jungle road south of Kisangani.
By then Kisangani had fallen to Laurent Kabila's rebel alliance and the refugees - considered enemies of the alliance - were herded into three camps, Kasese (Kilometer 25), Biaro, (Kilometer 41) and Kilometer 82, on the jungle trail south to Ubundu. Five months on the march had taken its toll: Thousands had died or just disappeared in the jungle, and thousands more were on the brink of disaster: Disease, starvation and just sheer exhaustion were killing over 120 refugees a day.
The UNHCR and its sister NGOs, The World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, Medcin Sans Frontiers (MSF), OXFAM and Save the Children - to name the most prominent - reacted immediately to the crisis, launching a major relief operation.
The problems posed by such an operation were manifold: To begin with there were the obvious logistical problems of running a relief operation in the middle of Zaire's tropical rain forest; Food and medical supplies, along with all the necessary infrastructrural equipment, had to be transported along roads that all but disintegrated with the arrival of the seasonal rains in mid-April. Even crossing the Congo river was a recurring ordeal that added two to three hours to the daily journey to the camps.
Alongside these logistical problems, the UN also faced a less than enthusiastic rebel administration and an openly hostile local population. The presence of 80 000 Rwandan refugees placed a huge strain on an already fragile environment. Furthermore, the scale of the UN's operations generated considerable resentment, particularly among Zairian villagers who literally watched tons of food pass under their noses!
Yet within two weeks the UN and the various other NGO's had been able to stabilize the humanitarian situation. Despite the outbreak of cholera - which is endemic to the rain forest in the rainy season - the death rate by the latter part of April had dropped to under 60 people a day.
Alongside this relief operation, the UN had also begun to prepare a plan for the repatriation of the refugees to Rwanda, thereby hopefully bringing to an end, this tragic saga.
On the eve of the scheduled beginning of the airlift, disaster struck: The already hostile attitude of the local Zairian villagers who lived near the three camps was inflamed by an attack by unidentified "Rwandan-speaking" troops on the Zairian village of Kasese. Six villagers were gunned down in their beds in a style of attack that was reminiscent of the bad days in KwaZulu Natal. In what appears as an act of reprisal local villagers, supported by unidentified units of Kabila's rebel army launched a concerted attack on the camps, sending the refugees fleeing deep into the forest.
For nearly a week Kabila's rebel alliance denied the UN access to the camps. But as the bloody details of the massacres began to leak out and the level of international condemnation increased, they were forced to relent.
Yet when the UN was eventually allowed back into the area to search for the survivors they found scenes of horror and mutilation that shocked even the most seasoned of its personnel. Starving and exhausted, the refugees had slowly begun to re-emerge from the jungle, all telling the familiar story, and in many cases bearing the scars, of mayhem and murder.
Fearful of further attacks, the UN moved swiftly to evacuate the refugees and begin the process of repatriation. Within days the airlift was in full swing, with over 1 200 Rwandans being flown home daily. And while the airlift continues at this time, some 30 000 people remain unaccounted for, lost to Zaire's heart of darkness.
The precise details of the horror in the jungles south of Kisangani will never be known. The jungle itself will probably conceal the depths of human depravity witnessed here, unwittingly shielding the perpetrators of this latest genocide from justice. Adil Bradlow whilst on an assignment for Associated Press spent a month in Kisangani, Zaire in 1997.
Children are suffering and dying.This should be stop and stop children killing.
This is a picture of A child dying,War should be stop
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Mike
Joined: Aug 31, 2001
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sadness.
January 17, 2002 - 10:24 AM
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sadness.
I was too young to understand what was happening in Rwanda. But as i grew older, and even till today. Ive only recently come to the conclusion that Rwanda was not there to be understood. It was there to remind us that history repeats itself, and that evil only occurs because good people sit by and watch.
Humans werent meant to be spectators. At least, we have the capability to do more than just watch.
We can save.
We can prevent.
We can anticipate.
It is sad that those who could help, did not.
Sadness.
God bless those in the UN who mean for every joule of their energy to prevent hatred, war, oppression.
and sadness.
- - -
Pred.
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Vanessa Currie
Joined: Feb 28, 2001
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Re: SINS OF OUR FATHERS
January 17, 2002 - 12:42 PM
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great article, where did you get it from?
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