I was deeply shocked and saddened to find out this morning that the Rwandan refugees from one of the refugee camps that Right to Play worked in were repatriated by force on Wednesday night. The article describing the repatration was in the Montior, a Ugandan newspaper that is not run by the government. My friend and co-worker also received an email from one of our refugee sports council members (and friends) confirming the recent repatriation:
Hullo Jennifer!
How are you?As you told me before you left us in Oruchinga now everything going on. Than one is to repatriated refugees by force. This was yesterday in Nakivariand Kyaka II. for Oruchinga their are still waiting what will be but not yetinformed. Please I request you to inform me if you receive this massage.
Other ways we are still trying this world.
Greet all for me.
"God be with us" Mtheos.
I have tried to find more information online (thinking that both of my sources may be a bit biased, or perhaps not biased, but from the mouths of the refugees, I'm not sure what the Ugandan government and UNHCR (the United Nations High Commission for Refugees) has to say about the whole thing....
I worked in Uganda with Rwandan refugees, implementing sport and play activities in the Oruchinga refugee settlement. While I was there in 2004, UNHCR and the Ugandan government had been talking about repatriating the Rwandans who were still living in Uganda ten years after the genocide had occurred. My people (the refugees I worked with) were deeply fearful of this possible repatriation, they feared that Rwanda was not safe for them. In addition to the lack of security, my refugees had built a home in Uganda. Their children had been born in Uganda and had grown up there. They had homes in Uganda, and land. Gardens, and friends. To return home to Rwanda meant uncertainty. It would be highly unlikely that the overpopulated country of Rwanda would have any land left for those who had not returned after the geoncide.
My heart broke when I heard this news. I know that UNHCR and the Ugandan government cannot continue to support these displaced Rwandans, but I cannot help but think of these people who were forced into trucks in the middle of the night and sent back to a land where the only memories they have are of death and sadness.
I am thankful for the few young refugees (my friends) who have left Uganda (Nsabimana John, Rubayiza John, and Innocent Mugyenzi) to study at various United World Colleges around the world. I am thinking of those Rwandans who lived in Kyaka II and Nakivale, who are now back in a foreign land.
~Jen
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