The statement follows a Human Rights First teams’ extensive interviews with Rwandan refugees who have arrived in Uganda from Tanzania seeking protection in recent weeks, and discussions with those assisting them both in Uganda and Tanzania. Though officials with the UN and Tanzania have said that refugee returns to Rwanda will be voluntary, refugee testimony raises serious concerns that the December 31 deadline may force many refugees to repatriate before their safety can be assured.

A major voluntary repatriation operation targeted at Rwandan refugees is currently underway in Tanzania, said Deirdre Clancy, Director of the International Refugee Program of Human Rights First. The repatriation program was launched in November 2002 rooted in a tripartite agreement signed in Geneva by UNHCR and the Tanzanian and Rwandan governments. The agreement provides that every effort will be made to complete the operation “by the end of December 2002.” There is concern, however, that some of the estimated 25,000 to 40,000 Rwandans who were in Tanzania at the beginning of November 2002 may have been, or will be forcibly returned. The tripartite agreement affirms that Rwandan refugees who do not wish to return home will be permitted to remain in Tanzania, pending further review of their cases—in line with international refugee law.

“While the talk in Geneva and Dar es Salaam has been of voluntary repatriation there are disturbing reports that the reality on the ground may be quite different and that refugee lives are in danger,” said Clancy, from Kampala.

Many of the refugees who had fled from Tanzania told Human Rights First that they believed that if they stayed in Tanzania they would have no choice but to return to Rwanda. Some alleged that the authorities had used threats of violence and the destruction of camp facilities to force participation in the repatriation operation. A number claimed that they had previously attempted to repatriate to Rwanda but had been imprisoned or otherwise persecuted there, leading them to again flee. Some asserted that they had returned to Rwanda as recently as November 2002 (under the new repatriation program) but had been unable to find safety.

Many of those who talked to Human Rights First said that they had previously been caught up in the 1996 repatriation operation—which was marked by violence and forced many returnees to flee a second time to Tanzania and other neighboring States. Refugees said that public statements by Tanzanian authorities declaring that all Rwandans must repatriate by December 31 completely eroded their sense of safety.

As the December 31, 2002 deadline for the repatriation operation approaches, there are genuine fears—both among refugees and UN and voluntary agency personnel to whom Human Rights First spoke—that inappropriate pressure will be put on Rwandans who still need protection to leave Tanzania. “All of the parties agreed in Geneva that that every refugee who enters the repatriation program must do so voluntarily and be assisted to return in safety and dignity,” said Clancy. But many Rwandans in Tanzania continue to express credible fears of persecution if returned to Rwanda. “It is vitally important for both the protection of the Rwandan refugee population in Tanzania, and for the stability of the region as a whole, that this principle of voluntary return is strictly upheld,” she said.

Clancy added, “of course there are genuine concerns on the part of governments that hiding among the refugee population in Tanzania may be those who committed genocide in 1994 and who are seeking to avoid capture and trial.” The Rwandan government has repeatedly expressed such fears. Ensuring accountability for serious human rights violators is not, however, incompatible with the requirement that refugee repatriation must be voluntary, Clancy insisted. “International law provides mechanisms whereby those who attempt to use refugee populations as shields of impunity can be identified and prosecuted.” A major study on security, refugee protection, and ensuring accountability in Africa, entitled Rebels, Refugees and the Quest for Justice, was recently published by Human Rights First.