Abstract
Since 1994, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has seen a mass movement of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) within its borders. The impact of more than 1.2 million Rwandan refugees coming into Congo following the Rwandan genocide in 1994 drastically affected the eastern region and brought international media attention with it. The internal politics of the DRC have been significantly transformed since that time with the end of Mobutu’s “kleptocratic” regime, the sudden rise to power of Laurent Désiré Kabila, and finally the new leadership of his son, Joseph Kabila. Subsequently, the DRC has witnessed its own movement of populations, stimulated by internal violence and civil war.
Jude Murison would like to thank and acknowledge the financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council, U.K.
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Notes
For a discussion of this point see Guy S. Goodwin- Gill, The Refugee in International Law, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 14.
UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 50. It should be noted that prior to this, there had been economic migration between Rwanda and Congo since the 1920s. See Catharine Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 161–171, and Jean-Pierre Pabanel, “La question de la nationalité au Kivu,” Politique Africaine, no. 41 (mars 1991): 32–40.
UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees, 50. It is estimated that a further 90,000 Rwandans fled to Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania (then Tanganyika), ibid, 49. For greater detail of the events surrounding the refugee exodus from Rwanda in the 1960s see André Guichaoua, Le problème des réfugiés Rwandais et des populations Banyarwanda dans la région des Grands Lacs Africains (Geneva: UNHCR, 1992), M. d’Hertefelt and D. Lame, Société, culture et histoire du Rwanda. Encyclopédie bibliographique (1963–1980/87) (Tervuren: MRAC, 1987), and Rachel Yeld, Rwanda: Unprecedented Problems Call for Unprecedented Solutions (Oxford: Refugee Studies Programme, 1996).
Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (London: Hurst & Co., 1998), 312, and Abbas H Gnamo, “The Rwandan Genocide and the Collapse of Mobutu’s Kleptocracy,” in Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke, eds., The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1999), 324, use the same figures, although Prunier suggets these figures may be inflated. For figures concerning the influx of Rwandan refugees to other neighboring countries, UNHCR estimates that 270,000 Rwandan refugees went to Burundi, 580,000 to Tanzania, and 10,000 to Uganda; see UNHCR, The State of the World’s Refugees, 246.
For a more detailed analysis of this point see Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat? The Paradoxes of Humanitarian Action (Ph.D. diss., Australian National University, Canberra, 2000), and Kate Halvorsen, “Protection and Humanitarian Assistance in the Refugee Camps in Zaire: The Problem of Security” in Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke, eds., The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1999).
Mahrnood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda (Oxford: James Currey, 2001), chapter 8.
“We Will Stay in Congo, Says Rwanda,” The New Vision (Kampala daily), 16 June 2000; “Uganda to Quit DRC—Museveni,” The New Vision, 16 June 2000; “Unilateral Ceasefire in Kisangani,” The New Vision, 9 June 2000, “UN Faces Obstacles on Congo,” The New Vision, 6 June 2000.
Figures taken from United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Submitted by the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Roberto Garretón, in accordance with Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2000/15 (New York. ECOSOC, 2001), para. 31 and Global IDP Database, “Violent Conflict between the Hema and Lendu People in the Orientale Province Has Caused Major Displacements since June 1999,” Democratic Republic of Congo Section: Causes and Background of Displacement, available at web site http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idp.
All figures taken from International Crisis Group (ICG), Scramble for the Congo: Anatomy of an Ugly War (Nairobi/Brussels: ICG: 2000), 67.
Halvorsen, “Protection and Humanitarian Assistance in the Refugee Camps in Zaire,” 308.
Ibid.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), DRC Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin, January–February 2000 (New York: UNOCHA, 15 February 2000).
Gérard Prunier, “The Geopolitical Situation in the Great Lakes Area in light of the Kivu Crisis,” WRITENET Country Papers (Geneva. UNHCR, February 1997).
Kisangani N F. Emizet, “The Massacre of Refugees in Congo A Case of UN Peacekeeping Failure and International Law,” Journal of Modern African Studies 38, no 2 (2000): 163–202.
Ibid., 174–176.
See ECOSOC, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Zaire, Prepared by the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Roberto Garretón, in Accordance with Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1996/77 (New York. ECOSOC, 1997).
See Emizet, “The Massacre of Refugees in Congo,” for an excellent analysis of these events See 173–179 for calculations on establishing the number of refugees killed.
See, respectively, ECOSOC, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Resolution 2000/15; Amnesty International, DRC: A Long-standing Crisis Spinning Out of Control, AI Index: AFR 62/33/98 (London: Amnesty International, 1998); and Human Rights Watch, Uganda in Eastern DRC: Fueling Political and Ethnic Strife, March 2001, available at http://www.hrw.org.
This point was discussed openly on many occasions during interviews conducted with members of parliament, government officials, and refugees in Uganda during 2000. For further details concerning the establishment of the RPF see Wm. Cyrus Reed, “Exile, Reform, and the Rise of the Rwandan Patriotic Front,” The Journal of Modern African Studies 34, no. 3 (1996): 479–501, and Gérard Prunier; “Eléments pour une histoire du Front Patriotique Rwandais,” Politique Africaine, no. 51 (Octobre 1993). 121–128.
In 1967 there were approximately 33,576 Congolese refugees in Uganda See John B Kabera, “The Refugee Problem in Uganda,” Refugees: A Third World Dilemma (New Jersey: Rowman & Littlefield, 1987), 73. In 1983, there were 1700 Congolese refugees in Kyaka I, Statistics collected Kyaka I Refugee Settlement, November 2000.
“Uganda Training Rebels in Mbarara—Rwanda,” The East African (Nairobi weekly), 17 September 2001.
International Rescue Committee (IRC), Mortality in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (New York: IRC, 2001).
For example, see Oxfam, A Forgotten War—A Forgotten Emergency (Oxford: Oxfam, 2000); ECOSOC, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Resolution 2000/15; IRIN, “‘Very Concerned’ over Humanitarian Situation,” 16 October 2000.
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Murison, J. (2002). The Politics of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in the Congo War. In: Clark, J.F. (eds) The African Stakes of the Congo War. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982445_13
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