Malawi harbouring Rwandan intelligence operatives (10.10.07)
Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has come under heavy criticism from a Rwandese alliance of opposition parties for colluding with Rwanda President Paul Kagame to crack down on opposition political asylum seekers, Nyasa Times has learned.
The opposition alliance comprises of; the Rwandan Democratic Alliance, Resistance Forces for Democracy, Republican Rally for Democracy and other independent political leaders under the umbrella of UDF Inkingi have alleged that armed under cover Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) government intelligence operatives on Monday night attacked Dr Jean Marie Vianney Rwabukwisi’s home in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.
The armed bandits are said to have fired several shots and rushed in Rwabukwisi’s house destroying several personal belongings but nobody was neither killed nor injured. The attack occurred barely four weeks after Kagame met Mutharika during the inauguration of a three kilometres Paul Kagame Road in the capital Lilongwe.
His [Kagame] real objective was to confuse Malawian leaders on the real situation prevailing in Rwanda and pressurize them so that tens of thousands of Rwandan refugees living in that country since 1994 are expelled.
“Before Kagame’s September 2007 visit, several Rwandan refugees were harassed and racketed by biased Malawian local officials. He tried without any tangible success to have immediately all Rwandan refugees repatriated against their desire,” reads a statement issued yesterday and signed by the Forces Démocratiques Unifiées secretary general Dr Jean-Baptiste Mberabahizi.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lilongwe and Malawi Police Services were not readily available for a comment as they could not be reached via phone.
The alliance says it is not the first time that Rwandan refugees in Malawi have been attacked citing last year’s events when RPF operatives crossing from the Tanzanian territory infiltrated and terrorised refugees camps [Dzaleka and Luwani] triggering flees into neighbouring Mozambique where they sought asylum.
“The UDF-Inkingi condemns Rwabukwisi’s home attack and states categorically that such acts of intimidation are both criminal and completely counter-productive, as far as voluntary repatriation of refugees is concerned.
“The UDF-Inkingi reaffirms that impunity assured to mass killings suspects within the RPF government both civil and military, assassinations, disappearances, ethnic discrimination, political and social exclusion, judicial harassments by so-called “Gacaca” jurisdictions traditional courts, serious and daily attempts to the right to private property including the right to run businesses freely, insecurity of land tenure and above all ethnocentric nature of military, police and intelligence bodies are the real reasons pushing Rwandans of all ethnic and social backgrounds to flee their country and preventing them from going back home,” says Dr Mberabahizi.
The Rwandese have appealed to the Malawian authorities to investigate Rwabukwisi’s home attack and to make public their findings so that those involved are apprehended and punished according to national law and international standards.
“The UDF-Inkingi asks Malawian authorities to protect the lives of Rwandan refugees as they did since 1994 and to resist RPF government pressure aimed at destroying their renowned hospitality Rwandans refugees have been enjoying so far,” concludes the statement.
Malawi is home to over 5,000 Rwandan refugees who are on the verge of being repatriated back home following the signing of a tripartite agreement between the governments of Malawi, Rwanda and UNHCR.
By Charles Kufa, from nyasatimes.com