There are fears that the Great Lakes region could again descend into war. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has insisted that he will enter the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and attack Hutu fighters based there if Kinshasa and the United Nations fail to disarm the rebels.
His argument is simple: the 1994 genocide in which nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, never really ended because many perpetrators remain at large, attacking Rwanda from bases in the jungles with the intention of fighting their way back home to finish their murderous project.
Ezra Birinjira (41), a Hutu, spent four years in a DRC refugee camp. He claims not to have killed anyone but to have been forced to flee Rwanda because of fears of Tutsi reprisals.
He crept back into the country with a group of infiltrators who were later caught by Rwandan troops.
”Infiltrator doesn’t mean you killed or you didn’t kill,” emphasises Birinjira. ”There are many young boys who were trained how to shoot — and that’s all. They never killed and they are called infiltrators. So there are different types of people who came back into Rwanda.”
However, the Rwandans claim between 8 000 and 10 000 Hutu rebels live in the eastern DRC and suspect most of them are former killers.
”Before the genocide I was a pastor,” reflects Birinjira, sitting outside his three-bedroomed brick house in one of the poorer Rwandan suburbs of Rhungeri province.
”My congregation was called the Deeper Life Pentecostal church. My family is Hutu. All of us who live in this area are Hutu. We started hearing about Tutsis being killed as far back as 1990, but it worsened in 1994.
”I used to teach people about the word of God and that Hutus and Tutsis shouldn’t be segregated. But you can’t convince everyone …”
The death of the Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, in April 1994, was the catalyst for those who wanted Tutsi killings to gain momentum.
”The first thing we heard on the radio was that the president had died; later on they were saying that it was the Tutsis who had done it and that we had to get revenge. I got scared by what I was listening to. Then the insecurity got worse and we had to flee.
”I went to Congo with my wife and eight children. We walked up to the border and told them we were refugees and they let us cross over. We were separated into different refugee centres. We were always scared because we were in a foreign country with nothing to do; just to stay there and wait.”
Fear of what was happening back home kept Birinjira and many other Hutus immobilised.
”Leaders in the refugee camp told us that in Rwanda there was insecurity and so we were scared to come back home. But after four years some soldiers came and destroyed the whole transit centre.
”People were scattered. Some fled further into the Congo, while others, like me, decided to cross back into Rwanda. I came in with a group of infiltrators who were fighting and killing people. I was sneaking among them, so that I could reach my home.”
The group Birinjira was with was caught by Rwandan troops and forced to surrender. He was sent on a compulsory four-month training course organised by the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission.
”They taught us how to follow the rules of the new Rwandan government, and not to start segregating between Hutus and Tutsis. There are many things that made me happy on this course, like talking about unity, reconciliation and togetherness.”
But president Kagame is taking no chances. And sceptics argue whether the hatred that caused the genocide in the first place has dissipated.
”When I first came back I got nervous,” remembers Birinjira. ”Then later on, because I believe I didn’t do any killings, I got settled and didn’t get scared anymore.
”My dream is that the other infiltrators who are in Congo, cross the border and come home. There’s no use them staying in the forests, they should come back. There are many, many people still there …”