3/09/97
南アの新聞ELECTRONIC MAIL&GUARDIAN からの転載です。
ザイールの反乱軍が解放した村の住民の声を紹介しています。
モブツ政権とフツ人難民内のかつてのルワンダ兵からの二重の解放を喜んでいるという事です。
フツ人ルワンダ兵はザイール人に牛などの供出を迫り困っていたし、逃げ出すときには略奪、レイプを行ったと批判しています。また解放された村の住民が反乱軍に対して抵抗せず、彼らを受け入れたことを強調しています。
なんか分からなくなってきました。正直言って。
ELECTRONIC MAIL&GUARDIAN （http://www.mg.co.za/mg/africa.html）
March 7, 1997
A double liberation for Punia
The rebels are being treated as double heroes as they march through Zaire, freeing residents from 30 years of Mobutu's plundering rule, and the brutalities of the fleeing remnants of Rwanda's Hutu army. CHRIS MCGREAL reports from Punia in eastern Zaire LL that stands between Punia and the new order is a few dozen Rwandans. The Zairean army fled long ago. Most of the policemen have discarded their uniforms and weapons. And the town's residents have no intention of putting up any resistance. The inexorable rebel advance across eastern Zaire is likely to engulf Punia within days. The insurgents will come along the only road into the town, carved through thousands of square miles of thick jungle from Kindu, the pivotal city they seized last week. Tiny Punia is not nearly so important. The rebels may stop no longer than to ensure the town is free of resistance before pressing on toward Kisangani, the regional capital nervously awaiting assault. But for Punia's residents it will be a double liberation. Barthelemy Basele Kafima, a teacher, says he will welcome the rebels for freeing him from three decades of Mobutu Sese Seko's plundering rule. But the insurgents will also be hailed for relieving the town from the more immediate anguish of occupation by the remnants of Rwanda's defeated Hutu army, which is retreating deeper into Zaire to escape the rebels and extermination. "We'll be very happy when the rebels come," Mr Basele said. "It's time for a change. We've had enough of Mobutu and the Rwandans." About 140 Rwandan Hutu soldiers occupy Punia. Some still wear the tattered uniforms in which they fled their own country after losing the war - and committing genocide - nearly three years ago. One young man, dressed in an oversize pair of multicoloured shorts, might be headed for a day at the beach. But he is not nearly so benign. "The population is traumatised by the Rwandan soldiers," Mr Basele said. "They come and demand a cow. The next day they demand another. You cannot even walk down the street without them robbing you. People are terrified. They have fled to the forest out of fear." Local officials estimate half the town's residents are hiding in the surrounding jungle to escape the Hutus. The Rwandan fighters are just about the only authority in town, and certainly the only one residents take note of. About 50 Zairean troops and gendarmes once resident in Punia have fled, or discarded their uniforms and buried their weapons to await the rebels. Contempt for what is left of the Zairean power structure is open. Mr Mobutu is mocked publicly. When a gendarme with a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder tried to warn Mr Basele he was being subversive, the crowd derided the policeman and chased him away. He slunk off behind a building, too embarrassed to show his face again. Then the group turned on one of their number. A finger was pointed at a shabbily dressed man. "He is a spy. He pretends to be a refugee but he is a Hutu spying on us for the Rwandan soldiers," someone shouted. He, too, was chased off. In a desperate bid to diminish sympathy for the rebels, the government accused them of massacring tens of thousands of people. But it has not phased the people of Punia. Some young men hint that they may join the insurgents. If there is resistance to the rebels, it will come from the Rwandans. Since the war began in October, Hutu extremists have been a primary target for the Tutsi-backed insurgents. But the people of Punia fear the prospect of fighting less than the possibility the Hutus will go on a rampage of looting and raping before they retreat, in part because that is what Zairean soldiers invariably do. There are signs the Rwandan former soldiers are preparing to leave Punia. They have told more than 4,000 Rwandan civilian refugees who have struggled to the town that, yet again, they must move. Mostly they are women and small children who were among nearly one million people who fled the sprawling camps around Goma and Bukavu when the civil war began. The bulk were subsequently forced home, but 200,000 or more remain inside Zaire. In Punia, they are crammed into an old mill. Most appear resigned to their fate. One man said he had no more control over his life than a cow. If the young Hutu soldiers say move, the refugees will. But it is traumatic, especially for small children who have only ever known life in camps. They are already exhausted by life before they are three years-old. Even Punia's residents feel sorry for them. "There are lots of civilian refugees who don't understand why they're here. We have no problems with the Rwandan civilians. We helped them because we're human beings. That's our humanitarian obligation. We just want the soldiers to get out of here and leave us alone," Mr Basele said.
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