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Resettlement Camps: Nemba, Nasho, Ndego and Kageyo
Mass killings of Tutsis in Rwanda started as early as 1959, though conceptions of the genocide are often limited to the 100 days in 1994. With the rise in violence came a surge of refugees from all sides. This report focuses primarily upon those who fled, or were sent to, Tanzania. As thousands of Rwandan refugees from 1959 began new lives in Tanzania they obtained land and cows, started families, raised children, held jobs, and many were even granted citizenship. In 1994 there were two more waves of refugees who settled in various communities throughout Tanzania: Tutsis and moderate Hutus fleeing during the genocide, and Hutus who fled following the genocide in fear of revenge killings.In 1994, as Tanzanians learned of the genocide in Rwanda and the influx of refugees, they concluded these Rwandans were perpetrators of genocide trying to escape RPF revenge killings. The Tanzanians made no distinction between the refugees from 1959 and 1994 and suddenly turned on anyone who was, or ever had been, Rwandan. In 2006 Rwandans were chased out of Tanzania and those who did not flee fast enough were beaten or killed. Most were forced to leave all of their belongings and property behind and some even had to leave without children or family members who were not home at the moment of forced removal. The Tanzanians responsible for chasing out their neighbors appropriated everything left behind indicating, perhaps, that land shortages and poverty also contributed to the suddenness and ferocity with which the removal was carried out. The majority of these refugees—some of whom identified as Rwandan, but many of whom identified as Tanzanian—fled to a camp in northeastern Rwanda called Kiyanzi. Soon after their arrival the Rwandan government came and dispersed the families to many different resettlement camps in eastern Rwanda. This report evaluates the camps of Nemba, Nasho, Ndego and Kageyo.
These camps became home to a diverse mix of people -- Tutsis who had fled in 1959, Tutsis who had fled after 1959 but before 1994, and Tutsis who had come to Tanzania in 1994 during the genocide, and, Hutus who had fled in 1994 both during and after the genocide (immediately viewed as genocidaires, or perpetrators of genocide, by those who had fled earlier). There were those who had been born in Tanzania and did not identify as Rwandan, and there were those who longed to return to their homeland of Rwanda but could not because of the war. Each of these groups distrusted the others. Further complicating these confusing group dynamics, the camps were established in places where Rwandans already lived, or, neighboring Rwandans were brought to the camps to teach the newly returned refugees how to farm, how to speak Kinyarwanda, and simply, how to survive. Many of those returning from Tanzania believed anyone who had stayed in Rwanda was a killer, and thus had great fear of their Rwandan neighbors. Those who had stayed in Rwanda were bitter towards those who had left and did not trust them. Predictably, the conflict born out of such diversity divided the individuals and communities in the camps. Families kept to themselves, avoided neighbors, and there was constant conflict and violence in the camps. These camps are also located in extreme isolation—far from major towns and barely accessible via bad and unmarked roads. This was the situation plaguing these four camps in 2007 when AVP arrived.