UNHC/CNR deploying suspected people in Goma to spy on Rwandan Hutus Refugees

PRESS RELEASE TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND REFUGEES IN GOMA,  TO BE CAREFUL OF PEOPLE NAMED REFUGEE COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS DEPLOYED BY UNHCR/CNR TO SPY ON REFUGEES IN GOMA NORTH KIVU

This week refugees in Goma alerted us about the presence of two people whose identity is not well known deployed in each local council in Goma by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in partnership with the Congolese National Commission for Refugees known as CNR Goma. These people are directly supervised by the refugee welfare community which was put in place again by UNHCR in order to facilitate various operations.

Both the Refugee Welfare Community is believed by refugees that is composed of spies from Rwanda and these spies are deliberately introduced to this community during the elections of refugee leaders, generally during elections CNR/UNHCR always impose people who should be part of the Refugee Welfare Community and in the past some among those introduced as spies have vanished and returned to Rwanda after finishing the mission.

With the ongoing political deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Angola, UNHCR has been involved on issues of refugees which Rwanda considers as negative forces and should be deported to Rwanda, in order to clearly identify refugees and where they are UNHCR/CNR introduced in place this team called “Refugee Community Volunteers” which is composed of two people in each Local Council in Goma.

Various questions are being asked by Rwandan refugees

Most of the concerned Rwandan refugees are mainly Hutus but the team deployed also incorporates Tutsi who are connected to Rwanda and no one knows how they became refugees in DRC, among the team there also others who believed not are being refugees and others have been working on behalf of the government of Rwanda.

We inform the Heads of Avenues, Heads of Neighborhoods and Rwandan Refugees residing in Goma to pay attention and be vigilant in terms of security. We alerted UNHCR Goma about this but they did not respond and we clearly understand this because UNHCR itself in Goma is one among the problems we must fix.

Rwanda is strongly opposed to the presence of Rwandan refugees in the Democratic Republic who actually Rwanda calls FDLR (Rwandan Negative Force) and in order to finish them Rwanda benefited from the support of the UNHCR to repatriate all refugees, but also Rwanda enjoys the support of DRC Government. Rwandan refugees have therefore faced various human rights violations including assassination, secretly being deported and missing among the top community leaders.

And again as we have said it before, UNHCR Goma plays the front role to deport Rwandan refugees back to Rwanda, over the years and it one among the issues we should discourage.