World

Rwanda: forgotten refugees

Africa’s

Tiny Rwonda in Central Africa, with a population of 5.3-million, is one of the world’s least-known countries. Flung into the headlines by the stories of refugees fleeing to safety there from terror in neighbouring Burundi, what did not reach the wires was Rwanda’s own tragedy: years of internal terror and repression by an imperialist-imposed regime, and the fact that 2 million Rwandese are living in exile throughout Africa, with little hope of returning.

Two members of the Intore Scciety (uniting Rwandese in exile), whom we shall call for security reasons Kabute and Butera, visited the Tribune to tell the sad story of their long-suffering people.

“Rwanda, after World War I, became a colony of Belgium,” ;said Kabute.” “The first thing the Belgians did was divide and segregate our population based on their traditional occupation: crop farming, or cattle raising — even though we are of the same origin.

“The Hutu (crop farming majority) and Tutsi (cattle raising minority) — the two so-called tribes on which ethnic strife is supposed to be based, and is supposed to be the reason for our problem, is in fact a false division. We speak the same language, have the same culture, share the same territory ... we even look alike, there are no ethnic differences, other than those externally imposed” said Kabute.

“The Belgians imposed the rule of the Hutu majority over the Tutsi minority, even though, traditionally, cattle raising was the yardstick of wealth and prosper- ity. The Belgians even spread the false notion that the Tutsi minority had come to the area centuries ago to make slaves of the Hutu.”

Internal repression against the Tutsi minority, while very real, is in fact a cover-up for 30 years of brutal dictator- ship. During the first flush of independ- ence sentiment in the 1950s, the people were on the whole united. But to main- tain neo-colonial power after independ- ence, the Belgians set up a Hutu (mostly-Catholic church-trained) ruling clique to take power and act in their interests.

“That’s when the massacres started,” said Butera, “just after independence, after a civilian coup in 1959. The Belgian- backed ruling elite started ‘cleaning from any power’ those who were Tutsi, and any Hutu who maintained nationalist sentiment. The massacres came in waves: in 1961, 1962, 1969 and in 1970.”

Rwanda’s present government is a military government, which came to power in another coup in 1973. Western oriented, it uses the same old style of ruling, by dividing people on tribal grounds. “Instead of trying to unite us on nationalist sentiment, so our whole peo- ple can prosper,” says Butera, “‘it still divides us into Hutu and Tutsi. We carry identity cards showing this.”

It makes a big difference in people’s daily lives. Barely 10 per cent of jobs officially go to a far larger (relative to Rwanda’s population) Tutsi minority. Then there are regional rivalries which make that 10 per cent even less. “Even Hutu are, on a regional basis, discrimi- nated against. So no one accepts this

Tutsi-Hutu scare tactic. Our people no longer believe in it,” says Butera.

The military government’s ties are bas- ically with the West, especially with Bel- gium, France, West Germany, and even with Canada and the U.S. Belgium still dominates via the infrastructure of the army. Belgium supplies advisors, instruc- tors, and even has a military base. France provides most of the army materiel, while West Germany provides civilian aid. Even Canada plays a neo-colonialist role: the university is administered and staffed by Quebecers.

“The younger generation, many born outside the country because their parents fled in the waves of massacres, and even young people inside the country, are now asking why 2 million people cannot return,” said Kabute. “It’s parallel to the Palestine situation.

“There is a very small, clandestine nationalist movement inside the country, tremendously persecuted; the movement is primarily based outside, among the refugees. But the government is also try- ing to physically eliminate us as well. This year a brother of one of the Rwan- dan refugees living in Canada was kid-

Ginstead of trying to unite us so the whole people can prosper, the government divides us into Hutu and Tutsi. We carry identity cards showing this. 9

napped from Zaire, where there is a large exile population, taken to Rwanda, where he is now in prison and sentenced to death. This can happen to any one of us — kidnapped or murdered there, by our own government’s intelligence, or by the ‘host’ government at its bidding; we never know. But it is a risk we take.

“Other governments have been com- plicit: there was-a massacre of Rwandan refugees in Uganda by that government in 1982, and a similar one in Zaire in 1964. We suffered alike under Amin and Obote. They all say we refugees are ‘threats’ to them.”

The Intore society representatives are in Canada to organize Rwandese here, and to tell the whole world that there are 2 million people who have been suffering for 30 years, and have been ignored. “Imperialism has made sure that our cause has gone unknown,” said Butera.

“The Rwandan government has tried ° to present the problem to the world as a Hutu-Tutsi problem. We are trying to correct that. Most of the Hutu majority are anti-government and suffer under the pro-Western military dictatorship, just as the minority Tutsi. The young genera- tion is now saying ‘We are all Rwandese, and nothing else matters. The problem is not Hutu-Tutsi, but a repressive military government trying to cling to power by dividing us.”

8 © Pacific Tribune, January 23, 1989

Violence by Israel mounts. as intifada | support continues -

By CHRIS FRAZER

The day after the events in Balata, the youth of Ramallah demonstrated to mark the anniver- sary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), one of the organiza- tions of the Pales- fags tine Liberation Org- anization (PLO).

Shortly after 10 a.m., young people began gathering behind a church near the centre of Ramallah (an Arab city of more than 40,000 inhabitants).

At half-past the hour, a sharp whistle pierced the morning silence, and instantly the demonstrators donned the Palestinian scarves they had carried concealed beneath their jackets, unfurled the banned Palesti- nian flag, and poured into the street, chant-

FRAZER

‘ing slogans and hurling stones at Israeli

soldiers gathered far at the other end.

Out of nowhere, stone barricades came up and tires were set ablaze to obstruct the chase that was sure to follow.

Suddenly shots rang out, and the ranks of the demonstrators broke and fled in several directions, carrying us along to nearby buildings where we hid while soldiers scoured the area in search of stragglers.

Ismail afterwards explained two signifi- cant facts about the demonstration. First, it represented the unity of the Palestinian people. Fatah supporters were demonstrat- ing today for the PFLP, and tomorrow PFLP supporters would demonstrate for Fatah.

Second, it reflected a shift in the tactics of the intifada from massive demonstrations to smaller, but simultaneous, protests. It is a change forced by the IDF (Israel’s army of occupation) use of live ammunition. This not only helps reduce casualties, but it for- ces the IDF to divide its forces, and compli- cates the chase to capture protesters.

Still, the occupation and_ repression against the uprising are exacting a terrible toll on the Palestinian people, a fact con- firmed by visits to the Al-Makassed Palesti- nian Hospital in Jerusalem.

Al-Makassed Hospital is a horrifying experience, a damning indictment of the Israeli occupation, making it quite clear that the so-called “non-lethal” ammunition and techniques used to put down the intifada are quite capable of killing and maiming.

Plastic bullets are metal balls the size of marbles, wrapped in plastic. One victim of plastic bullets, a 19-year-old lad named Elias, luckily didn’t die, even though he was chased down by soldiers who then shot him six times at point blank range — imbed- ding the bullets in the side of his face.

Rubber bullets look like regular ammuni- tion, and are simply coated with a thin layer of rubber over a hard metal core. Ali was 12 years old, and died just days after we saw him in the hospital. He’d been gunned down in cold blood while walking home with his brother to his farm near Nablus. The bullet entered his forehead, ploughed through his brain, and lodged in the back of hishead.

More than 500 Palestinians have died since the uprising began, 87 per cent of them males, and more than 20 per cent children under the age of 16.

ISRAELI PLASTIC BULLETS ... where — they do not kill, they main.

When live ammunition doesn’t kill, it maims for life. Nineteen-year-old Anwar was still hospitalized one-and-half-months after being shot in the head with high- velocity live ammunition. It left shrapnel and caused paralysis in his legs as well as loss of control over his sphincter and bladder. He can no longer speak.

CS gas carries with it two dangers. It can kill when it strikes the head or chest. And its poison has been connected to several hundred fetal deaths and miscarriages in the last year.

But gas and bullets are far from the only dangers. Of 46,000 reported injuries in the last year, 50 per cent are related to the use of ammunition and tear-gas. The remainder were caused by beatings inflicted by hand, with clubs, rocks and firearms, or by burns, vehicular assault, torture, and live burial.

Sixteen-year-old Ismail, from Nablus, was forced by Israeli soldiers to jump froma tall building. He suffered a complete spinal trans-section, causing paralysis in both legs. Foreign medical associations have offered aid, but Israeli authorities have denied Ismail permission to leave.

Ahmad is 43 years old, the father of 14 children. He was arrested, beaten, then thrown from a moving jeep and left to die. Ahmad suffered multiple traumas, includ- ing fractures to all four limbs and a severe brain concussion which has left him in a deep coma.

“At the beginning of the intifada, the violence was mainly directed at the youth,” said Dr. Ghanem, one of the Al-Makassed Hospital staff. “Now the violence is aimed against all ages, young and old, male and female. The Norwegian ambassador to Israel said recently that the situation here is worse than what happened in his country under the Hitler occupation.

“The army comes here often and we have had many cases where new patients were arrested while still in critical condition,” Ghanem continued. “On other occasions, the military governor has tried to close down our hospital.”

(Conclusion next week.)