American Refugee Committee Continues to Assist Refugees in Rwanda, Ten Years After the Genocide

American Refugee Committee
Tuesday, 6 April 2004

Ten years ago, the world watched in horror as a systematic genocide was carried out against Rwanda's Tutsi minority. The Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee was one of the many international organizations that responded, providing emergency humanitarian relief to refugees of the crisis in 1994. In the decade since, ARC implemented programs to stabilize and rebuild the country, and today continues assisting tens of thousands of Tutsi refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Rwanda.

"As soon as news of the slaughter in Rwanda broke, ARC began planning its humanitarian response," explains ARC president Hugh Parmer. The genocide of about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda began after a plane crash on April 6, 1994, that killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, and continued for about three months.

"Our initial response sought to assist refugees who had fled prior to the genocide. Our programs provided them with clean water and basic health care," recalls Karen Johnson Elshazly, an ARC staff member who made frequent trips to the region in the months and years following the genocide.

In July of 1994,nearly one million people fled Rwanda for Zaire, creating needs that overwhelmed the world's humanitarian aid community. "Large numbers of those seeking refuge in Zaire were dying before they reached safety," Johnson Elshazly remembers. During the crisis, ARC received much-needed financial support from its private donors, especially those in the Twin Cities. "Thanks to our local donors, ARC was able to act quickly, mobilize volunteers, and make an immediate impact."

In December 1994, as soon as it was feasible, ARC established an operational presence inside Rwanda, to assist refugees returning from earlier conflicts. When the massive return to Rwanda began to unfold in late 1996, ARC was pre-positioned to assist, providing a wide range of health care services to returning refugees. "We also implemented water, sanitation, health care and shelter projects throughout the country," Johnson Elshazly continues.

Today, Rwanda struggles to reintegrate the returnees into their communities, and to reconcile former enemies. It is also home a significant population of Congolese Tutsi refugees, who fled ethnic violence caused in large part by the original perpetrators of the genocide.

"Most of ARC's work today focuses on the second wave of victims, people who had fled neighboring DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) when Rwanda's Hutu re-established power in their territory," explains Parmer. "We operate programs in two camps, providing medical care, sanitation, and health education to those refugees, people who have little hope of returning home in the near future."

"Although a decade has passed since the genocide, so much still needs to be done for Rwanda," concludes Parmer. "We'll be there to help, as long as our donors support us and the security situation in the region remains stable."

The American Refugee Committee, based in Minneapolis, is an international nonprofit, non-sectarian organization providing humanitarian assistance and training to more than one million people in Africa, Asia and Europe. ARC works for the survival, health, and well-being of people caught in the crossfire of war or civil conflict.

For more information, or to contact American Refugee Committee, see their website at: www.archq.org