Reports of 44 ex-Rwandan soldiers in Malawi stir panic

Malawi Government has described as a national security threat reports that there are at least 44 former Rwandan Army soldiers, including ‘generals’ masquerading as refugees in the country.

Commissioner for refugees in Malawi, General Ignacio Maulana (retired) said this yesterday barely two days after Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale Ng’oma told journalists in Lilongwe that the Rwandan Government has sought assistance from Malawi to smoke out the suspects.

In an interview at Dzaleka Refugee Camp during a visit by members of the Parliamentary Defence and Security Committee, Maulana said it is a threat to any country to harbour people with military background as refugees.

He said: “The threat is there and it is huge, both the police and the MDF [Malawi Defence Force] know this. It is, however, so hard to identify such people because refugees mostly come into Malawi with nothing. It is only through collaboration with their country of origin that we can be able to flush them out.

“The refugees change their names as they enter our borders and it is only after we are furnished with their photographs and other identities that we can be able to locate them.”

Maulana described the dealings of some of the refugees as “Mafia-like”, saying intelligence also shows that some of them get financial assistance from people of influence back home.

In a separate interview, Ministry of Homeland Security senior administration and operations officer Hilda Kausiwa said ordinarily the Department of Refugees in the ministry conducts special interviews for ex-soldiers to exclude them before granting them the refugee status.

She said the process is thorough, but could not say whether any of the refugees in the camp disclosed of their military background.

During the visit, members of Parliament also expressed concerns over reports that some refugees are in possession of guns and other dangerous weapons.

Committee chairperson Ralph Jooma quizzed the officials from the Department of Refugees on media reports that a bomb exploded at the camp some few months ago.

In his response, director of the camp Hillary Namakwa dismissed the reports, saying it was a tear gas canister by the police which had exploded.

Jooma also wondered why the camp is still receiving new arrivals when the capacity of 12 000 was surpassed some years back and the figure exceeds 51 000.

Meanwhile, some Rwandan refugees at the camp are refusing to return home claiming that their lives will not be safe.

The 1994 Rwandan genocide saw at least 800 000 nationals brutally killed by fellow citizens.

There are currently at least 6 529 Rwandan refugees at the camp and  efforts by the department to have the community  repatriated are said not to have yielded any results.

Statistics also show that the camp has over 33 000 Congolese who cannot return home because of the ongoing conflict in the DRC.