48 DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO FMR 36 Refugee return and root causes of conflict Maria Lange

Since independence, violent conflicts in eastern DRC have been community. There are also legitimate linked to access to land, affirmation of ethnic identities and fears voiced by Congolese who live in areas where the refugees competition for political control. will return, largely focused on As a fertile border region, North Kivu chiefs. Such land purchases have land conflicts that may arise when has always been a zone of frequent given rise to accusations against refugees who sold or lost their land migration flows, both voluntary the Banyarwanda of ‘infiltrating’ come back to reclaim it. The problem and involuntary. During the local power structures. is that these legitimate concerns Belgian colonial period the Mission are amplified and manipulated d’Immigration des Banyarwanda1 Following the influx of Rwandan by leaders who use the issue to was established to bring entire Hutu militia to North Kivu after consolidate their political power and populations (Hutu and Tutsi) from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the protect their economic interests. neighbouring Rwanda to North Kivu, previously relatively localised so as to provide the large plantations ethnic tensions in North Kivu boiled A survey3 by the Mouvement with manual labour. After the ‘social over, leading to mass displacement Intellectuel pour le Changement revolution’ in Rwanda in 1959, Tutsi of Banyarwanda (Hutu and Tutsi (MIC)4 shows that opinions are refugees arrived in large numbers alike). Congolese Tutsi fled mostly divided amongst communities in in North Kivu, fleeing persecution. to Rwanda whereas the majority of areas of refugee return as to the These population movements the Congolese Hutu fled to Uganda. refugees’ national identity and the profoundly changed the political, It is the return of the Congolese circumstances surrounding their economic and social landscape of refugees from Rwanda that causes the departure. Many people confirm the province, and sowed the seeds of most polemic and raises the greatest that Tutsi used to live with them but localised power struggles and violent fears among some segments of the some claim that they are Rwandans conflict amongst ethnic communities, population in North Kivu. At the end who used to live there and who which later escalated following of 2009 there were 53,362 registered returned to Rwanda following the national and regional events. Congolese refugees in Rwanda. fall of the Habyarimana regime there Most of them arrived in early 1996 in 1994. The focus on this group The populations present in North and were registered by UNHCR. of people is used to delegitimise Kivu prior to the 1885 Berlin However, between July 1994 and the Congolese nationality claims Conference at which the borders of the end of 1995, large numbers of of all Congolese Tutsi – including the Congo State were determined Congolese Tutsi refugees arrived in those who have lived in North refer to themselves as autochtones Rwanda unassisted and unregistered. Kivu since well before 1959. (indigenous) and consider those who Today, they live in villages and arrived later as allochtones (‘foreign’ towns across Rwanda and there are The Congolese refugees living in or lacking a legitimate connection no official statistics that establish Rwanda originate from several areas to the land), applied in particular their exact number. The tripartite of North and South Kivu. According to those who speak Kinyarwanda. agreement signed in February 2010 to a UNHCR return intention According to popular Congolese between DRC, Rwanda and UNHCR survey in 2007, 80% of registered perception, the recurrent wars in applies only to registered refugees, Congolese refugees in Rwanda North Kivu from 1962 to the present meaning that non-registered returnees want to return to DRC. The main all have their origins in cross-border will not receive UNHCR assistance. determinant of whether and when identity allegiances, specifically they decide to do so is the level of of the ‘foreign’ Banyarwanda and Popular perceptions of return security in return areas. The refugees the Congolese Tutsis who are often Since around 2000, when security themselves state that the presence described as ‘Rwandans’. The in some of the areas where the of armed groups of Rwandan Hutu two invasions by the Rwandan refugees come from started to refugees in DRC was the cause of army in 1996 and 1998 further improve, ‘spontaneous returns’2 of their flight. One Congolese refugee strengthened this sentiment. Congolese refugees to North Kivu in the Gihembe camp states: have taken place. Some refugees ‘Autochtone’ discourse about come to visit and go back to Rwanda “They associated us with Rwandan Tutsi Banyarwanda ‘foreignness’ and whereas others stay. Periodically, and we felt ourselves to be in permanent ‘domination’ is closely linked to and linked to the overall political insecurity. They even managed to grievances about the Banyarwanda situation, ‘autochtone’ groups and kill some of us before we decided to buying land which used to belong to politicians express fears about plots flee to Rwanda. Even our Congolese white settlers as well as traditional by the ‘Rwandans’ (often code for compatriots … allied themselves with ‘autochtone’ community land ‘Tutsis’) to ‘re-occupy’ parts of North the Rwandan Hutu to attack us.” which was sold by local customary Kivu, aided by the international DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO 49 FMR 36

Many people firmly believe that Rwandan citizens are mixing themselves in with returning refugees so as to escape land scarcity in Rwanda and ‘occupy’ North Kivu. This opinion is so deeply rooted that even normal cross-border movements are from time to time Common Ground for Search portrayed as ‘infiltration’ or even planned large-scale migration of Rwandans to eastern DRC. This discourse is a reflection of popular fears but at a deeper level it is an expression of underlying causes of conflict which have never been resolved and which have remained unaddressed in the various peace accords. Constant accusations of being a ‘Trojan horse’ at the service of ‘the enemy’ give rise to feelings of A journalist from Radio Communautaire de Moba records a refugee’s greetings exclusion by Congolese Tutsi, who to her family members back home. During visits to refugee camps, journalists sometimes react by supporting armed from the local radio often invite refugees to record short greetings to let their families know about developments in their lives and their return plans. groups that promise redress. This of course does nothing to diminish the accusations. Failure to understand locaux permanents de conciliation ■■Advocate for Congolese fully the link between the deep (permanent conciliation committees) and Rwandan authorities to causes of conflict and the refugee in which all community members communicate publicly and return question can inadvertently will be represented. UNHCR and constructively about refugee reinforce tensions by lending UN-HABITAT have started setting return and to jointly establish credence to exclusionist discourses up these committees in North Kivu mechanisms to facilitate return. that appear rational (thus giving the with the aim of promoting a peaceful impression that they are true) but environment, allowing the return ■■Establish and build the capacity which tend to be based on popular of displaced people and refugees, of the permanent conciliation fears rather than established facts. and providing a framework for committees to facilitate community preventing and mediating inter- dialogue about conflicts. This What can and should be done? communal conflicts. However, the dialogue needs to go beyond Because of the extreme sensitivity absence of any conflict resolution or mediation in specific local and complexity of the issue, UNHCR peacebuilding expertise and proper land conflicts to discussing and international NGOs often feel process accompaniment for this and finding solutions to other constrained to ignore it, rather programme is deeply worrying. conflict issues. The agencies than communicate in an open and establishing the committees transparent way about the issue. Key actions for international actors must be very careful to avoid Whereas they of course have to try to to avoid refugee return causing politicisation of these committees. protect themselves from accusations conflict include the following: Maria Lange (mlange@international- based on popular perception that alert.org) manages International Alert’s they are aiding Rwandan plots ■■Base all interventions on in- project for ‘Enhanced Dialogue in to re-occupy North Kivu, these depth analysis not only of the Eastern DRC’ which is funded by the agencies also have a responsibility humanitarian situation but also European Commission. to communicate openly about what of local conflict dynamics and (http:// www.international-alert.org). they are doing and not to shy away how refugee and IDP returns from addressing the causes of conflict interact with these dynamics. The content of this article is the sole which are creating these tensions responsibility of its author and cannot ■ and leading to these accusations. ■Seek specialist assistance to be taken to reflect the viewpoints The predominance of humanitarian undertake conflict analysis and of the European Commission or of actors in North Kivu (with short- to plan and execute interventions International Alert. term staff contracts and therefore which take account of and address almost inevitably a superficial the causes of community tensions. 1. The term ‘Banyarwanda’ refers to people who have Kinyarwanda as their mother tongue. The term understanding of the causes of ‘Rwandophone’, coined more recently, is a politicised conflict) creates an environment ■■Promote dialogue between term. 2. ‘Spontaneous returns’ are refugee returns that take in which widely expressed communities about refugee return place without the facilitation of UNHCR. popular fears tend to become and facilitate direct dialogue 3. Conducted in Masisi, Rutshuru, Goma town, Byumba understood as established facts. between refugees and people and Kibuye refugee camps in Rwanda as well as with Congolese refugees in Kigali. in return areas (also involving 4. A Goma-based group of University students who The March 2009 Ihusi peace accord relevant NGOs, UN agencies and organise public hearings with youth and MPs on current foresees the establishment of Comités national and local authorities). issues.