500 Ex-Rebels Discharged from Reintegration Centre

NORTHERN PROVINCE 505 former rebels who surrendered during the recent joint Rwandan-DR Congo military offensive dubbed operation ‘Umoja wetu’ in the D R Congo, have completed six months of rehabilitation training at Mutobo Demobilisation and Reintegration Centre. The ex-combatants were drawn from the rebel factions of FDLR, RUDC and the Mai mai. Former Major Romaire Nzamwita, a former Battalion commander of a military police unit within the FDLR, a captain and nine lieutenants were among those who concluded this training. The Chairman of Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission Jean Sayinzoga, said that the reintegration process was part of the peace agreement signed between Rwanda and DR Congo in Nairobi. He added that the bilateral framework was meant to ensure that the genocide perpetrators and other dissident groups operating from DR Congo are repatriated. Sayinzoga asked the former combatants to be partners in peace building and general development by setting up cooperatives, and encouraged them to call upon their colleagues to return home. “We lived a painful hard life. Living for a long time in exile is a form of slavery,’’ said Josepha Mukamana, former medical official in FDLR. A visibly relieved, Maj Nzamwita another ex-rebel commander recalled how the joint operation paved the way for their repatriation. “The joint operation actually marked a turning point for us. We have now seen the truth on ground, we lived in darkness about what was happening at home,’ Nzamwita said. He said that the rebel senior commanders misled them that whoever returned would be either killed or sent to jail. Consequently they lacked true information about what was actually happening at home. Ends