Eugene Kwibuka
13 July 2007
Huye — Rwandan refugees who had been living in Burundi since the Genocide arrived this week back home in Huye district after 13 years out of the country.The 32 repatriated are mainly women and children, with only four men are among them. They were helped by the Rwandan embassy in Burundi to come back home from remote villages of Cibitoki Province in Northern Burundi.
A lot has happened to both Huye and the country since they left, and the 32 returnees are learning this immediately.
Many of them said for long they had been receiving frightening information about their country.
"We were late to come back because we were receiving false information about Rwanda," said one of the refugees. "We were told this is a country where government keeps killing and jailing people and where everyone is starving."
He added that he found the country peaceful and he is ready to work together with other Rwandans to build his country.
"It was necessary that I bring my children back home so that they can learn their country's culture," he said.
The repatriated Rwandans were received by officials in Huye District who took them to their original villages. They are from former provinces of Butare, Gikongoro and Kibuye.
Many of them said they were living a miserable life in Burundi, working in fields to get food.
"Life was very difficult in Burundi," said Samuel Ntakirutimana who brought three children with him.
Divorced and looking alone after his children, Ntakirutimana, 32, was working for food in different fields in Burundi, but said he recently was unemployed because of the dry season hitting Cibitoki Province.
He says he is committed to make a living in Rwanda.
"I would rather starve at home instead of being a miserable man outside my country," he said.
After being asked why he didn't return earlier, Ntakirutimana said there was a lack of information about Rwanda, a country he left in 1994. He doesn't know whether his farm and house still exist. He will just go and look for his relatives that he left when he was fleeing.
"I don't know if they still exist," he said.
Burundi is still home to unknown number of Rwandan refugees, including some suspected to be Genocidaires afraid to return home.
"There are many refugees in Burundi," she said. "Some are afraid to come back because they know the crimes they committed here while others are just there to make money and they would really love to come back," said Immaculate Habyariyaremye, another returnee.
But the Rwandan government keeps its arms open to receive Rwandans coming back home.
Aimable Twagiramutara, mayor of Huye, congratulated and welcomed the former-refugees.
"There is no reason to stay outside the country while Rwanda is peaceful and needs its people," he said. "Refugee camps are not a good place to bring children up. Their country is waiting for them to come back home."
He urged officials on the sector level to help the repatriated who still lack basic needs such as food, shelter and clothes.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates there were 8000 Rwandan refugees in Burundi in 2005.
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