Save the Date! The Austin Refugee Roundtable would like you to join us on Saturday, June 24, 2023 for a World Refugee Day Celebration at the Bullock Texas State History Museum!

A CALL FOR JUSTICE

Thursday 13th August 2020

On 13 August 2004, 166 civilian Banyamulenge were cruelly killed, some burned alive, in Gatumba, Burundi where they had been given refuge. Thevictims were slayed while under the protection of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi. Hundreds of others were injured, and most victims were women and children. They had sought refuge in Burundi to escape from political oppression in South Kivu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

A report dated 18 October 2004 jointly produced by the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), the United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concluded that the attack was clearly directed against the Banyamulenge refugees and apparently, ethnically and politically motivated. Various other credible sources, including the above UN report as well as a report by Human Rights Watch, compiled serious evidence leaving little doubts over the genocidal motivations and responsibilities in the massacre. The evidence clearly indicated that the Burundian Forces Nationales de Libération (PALIPEHUTU-FNL), the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), the Congolese army (FARDC) and Mai Mai militia were directly involved in the Gatumba massacre.

The UN report asserted that many of these foreign armed groups operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi border region harbour resentments against the targeted group and others such as Farmed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and Mai Mai militia may have political motives for preventing the refugees from returning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. PALIPEHUTUFNL, then a rebel movement led by Agathon Rwasa, openly confessed its responsibility in this massacre through Pasteur Habimana, the then spokesperson of the rebel movement. The ideology underlying the commission of the genocide in Rwanda one decade earlier was evident in the perpetration of the Gatumba massacre in August 2004. The UN report documented the fact that the attackers chanted such slogans as “we will exterminate all the Tutsis in Central Africa”; “kill these dogs, these Tutsis”; “today, you Tutsis, whether you are Rwandese, Congolese or Burundian, you will be killed”.

The massacre was widely condemned by several countries from around the globe as well as by supranational institutions such as the African Union, the European Union, and the United Nations. Many of them pledged to support endeavours aimed at bringing the perpetrators to justice. The United Nations urged countries in the subregion to cooperate in investigating the massacre and bringing perpetrators to justice. However, sixteen years after the massacre as perpetrated, no single step has been taken to deliver justice for the slain and surviving victims of the Gatumba massacre. The uproar that accompanied the commission of the crime has faded and victims face the sad prospect of never seeing justice done. The peculiar circumstances of a crime committed against Congolese citizens, on Burundian territory, by reportedly by Congolese national army and armed groups reportedly originating from three different or neighbouring countries of the region complicate, if not annihilate any prospects of domestic prosecutions against perpetrators of the crime. Victims are nonetheless still crying for justice. The inaction of Burundian and Congolese authorities imposes a duty on the international community to get actively involved in delivering on the promise of justice made to them in the immediate aftermath of the crime.

This sixteenth remembrance of the victims of the Gatumba massacre occurs at a time when the high plateaux of Fizi, Mwenga and Uvira in South Kivu, DRC, known to many as Minembwe, are still characterised by ethnically targeted massacres against the Banyamulenge. Accounts from credible sources indicate that more than 400 civilian Banyamulenge have been vicioussly massacred from April 2017, 318 villages have been burnt, 267 661 cows looted, 147 schools and 57 health centres completely destroyed and dozen of women and girls raped.

Crimes committed in eastern the DRC over the last decades have claimed numerous victims from the various communities living in the country. All victims deserve justice. Owing to the circumstances of the massacre and to the involvement of numerous actors, domestic and international initiatives aimed at delivering justice to the victims generally ignore the victims of the Gatumba massacre. This is evidenced by the non-coverage of the Gatumba massacre in the 2010 UN Mapping Report.

On this sixteenth remembrance of victims of the Gatumba massacre, the Gatumba Foundation notes that since the crime was committed, no active steps have been taken to bring perpetrators to justice. Gatumba foundation therefore urges:

1) The international community to deliver on the promise of justice made to survivors of the Gatumba atrocities in the immediate aftermath of the crime.
2) The United Nations to use all appropriate means to bring Agathon Rwasa, Pasteur Habimana and other perpetrators of the  massacre to justice.

3) The Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other sub-regional countries to cooperate in rehabilitating the victims.
4) To the DRC government to stop the on-going attacks against the Banyamulenge and provide support to thousands of displaced persons living in precarious conditions in Minembwe, Mikenke and Bijombo.
5) Restore security to allow for immediate return of internally displaced people and refugees to their places.

ON BEHALF OF GATUMBA REFUGEES SURVIVORS FOUNDATION, INC.
Espérance Nyasezerano
Gatumba Refugees Survivors Foundation, Inc.
33 central Avenue
Albany, NY 12206
Email: gatumbas@gmail.com
Phone: 470-775-1075
Website: www.gatumbasurvivors.org

Agency members of the Austin Refugee Roundtable have planned an annual World Refugee Day celebration since 2005. That first celebration was an informal picnic at Walnut Creek Park. The celebration moved the next year to Guero’s restaurant, then to the Episcopal Seminary in 2007.

The 2008 celebration was at St. David’s Episcopal Church. That year was the first time that the US Citizenship and Immigration Office (USCIS) collaborated with the Refugee Roundtable in hosting a citizenship ceremony for refugees who were eligible to become citizens.

The following year, World Refugee Day moved to the Bullock Texas History Museum and it had been there ever since. Every year, a number of refugees who had completed the process took the oath of allegiance to the United States. With the advent of the Corona Virus, this year’s World Refugee Day celebration is virtual and this is the first time in recent history we are not able to celebrate having a number of refugees become US citizens. USCIS has also put most of citizenship swearing in ceremonies on hold during this pandemic.

A word about citizenship from Mayra Lopez & Caritas of Austin:

Zizi Ellison from Interfaith Action of Central Texas discusses what citizenship means to her:

The video usually shown before the citizenship swearing in: