RUHENGERI, RWANDA
\nAs his comrades died of starvation and thirst around him, Mbale Hafashimana Amos finally decided to flee the Congolese bush for a country he had always been told would butcher him on arrival. Mbale, an ethnic Hutu, was part of a militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), initially formed by those who fled across the border after committing the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
\nBut the FDLR has been pushed to the brink of annihilation this year as a Rwanda-backed armed group, the M23, seized large parts of the region. By April, \u201cM23 pushed us to a place where we couldn\u2019t get anything to eat,\u201d said Mbale, 37. \u201cI saw over 150 soldiers die of starvation and dehydration. It was horrifying. This is a story I will tell anyone I meet for the rest of my days.\u201d
\nRwanda denies backing the M23, despite evidence from multiple international agencies, partly because the group has been accused of crimes against humanity. But Rwanda has also earned praise for welcoming and rehabilitating FDLR members who surrender. They are all ethnic Hutus, and include recent recruits as well as those who directly participated in the 1994 genocide, in which around 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered. When Mbale surrendered this year, he expected to be shot. Instead, he found himself in a rehabilitation camp back in Rwanda.
\nRwanda is no paradise. Dissent is ruthlessly crushed and a quarter of the population still lives in poverty, albeit down from 40 percent a decade ago, according to the World Bank. Critics argue its government exaggerates the threat of the FDLR — whose numbers experts say are in the low thousands — to justify taking control of eastern Congo.
\nBut few deny Rwanda has made a genuine effort to heal the ethnic divisions between Hutus and Tutsis that led to the genocide.
\nThe government gave media access to its rehabilitation camp at Mutobo to show off the work it does. Set among lush mountainous vegetation, it has seen tens of thousands of Hutu fighters and their families pass through since it was established in 1997. New arrivals are first given a three-week \u201ccooling off\u201d period, said Cyprien Mudeyi, a retired army major who runs the camp. \u201cThey are very fearful because of the ideology they have been given. Progressively the fear is removed,\u201d he said. Media watched around 200 \u201cbeneficiaries\u201d, as they are known, sharing frank experiences with visiting peace studies students from Zambia, and singing songs with words like:
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a secret behind the security in my country Rwanda, which has baffled the world\u201d. The arrivals spend around three months in the camp, receiving history lessons, psychological support, and training in professions like plumbing, tailoring and hair-dressing. Reaching out to the enemy was terrifying, said Nzayisenga Evariste, 33, a former FDLR corporal who arrived in September.
\nThe FDLR told him Rwandans would make him record upbeat videos about his surrender, only to then execute him.\u201dThey told us Rwanda is a country of Tutsis, where Hutus have no voice at all, and if you go there, they kill you,\u201d he told media. \u201cWhat we were told about Rwanda was all lies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUHENGERI, RWANDA As his comrades died of starvation and thirst around him, Mbale Hafashimana Amos finally decided to flee the Congolese bush for a country he had always been told would butcher him on arrival. Mbale, an ethnic Hutu, was part of a militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo called the Democratic Forces for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-517143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n