Voice of America News
04/26/2006

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About 18,000 Rwandans in northern Burundi are applying to stay in Burundi as refugees, claiming that their lives are in danger. But about 95 percent of the applications have so far been rejected and the Rwandans are to be sent home. Human rights groups accuse Rwanda of pressuring Burundi to return the asylum seekers, a charge both governments deny.

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Rwandan asylum seekers began trickling into Burundi last March shortly after the start in Rwanda of traditional trials known as "gacaca." These trials deal at the grassroots level with perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which Hutu extremists killed up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Many asylum seekers claim that the gacaca trials were unfair, they were being persecuted by the system, and they heard rumors of possible upcoming genocide revenge attacks. Others, such as Ndahiroho, said they fled because they were afraid of reprisals for opposing the government.

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Tony Garcia, a senior protection officer with the U.N. refugee agency in northern Burundi, explains why the commission turned down most of the [asylum seekers’] applications.

"The stories were confusing, contradictory, when you ask the head of the family and then you ask the wife the same questions, they will tell you something else," he said. "So it was just bad credibility or poor stories; probably inventions. People knew if they are refugees they will get assistance, so they were perhaps forcing themselves to say something because otherwise they would be sent back and maybe they left because they needed food. Who knows?"

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The London-based human rights group Amnesty International says in the run-up to the elections, the ruling party RPF detained opposition supporters, forced people to join the RPF, and issued death threats to those supporting the opposition. The group also says Rwandan authorities stifle criticisms of the Rwandan government, especially concerning the gacaca trials.

In a statement released last year, the American group Refugees International accused Rwanda of pressuring Burundi to send back the asylum seekers, primarily as a way of showing that the gacaca system is fair and just.

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"The Rwandan government has no apologies to make for wanting her citizens back. In fact, if all governments acted like Rwanda does, than maybe the refugee problem would be solved. That we vigorously invite all refugees to return is a policy of government," [Rwandan presidential advisor Richard Sezibera] said.

He also denies that the Rwandan government is pressuring Burundi to expel the Rwandan asylum seekers, but said the two governments are working closely together to make sure that these asylum seekers can return to Rwanda.