CCPR/C/128/D/2984/2017
in Democratic Republic of the Congo. The author grew up in Rwanda and graduated from
college there in 2011. However, the author emphasizes that he is not a national of Rwanda
and that his family had only been granted residence permits in that country.
2.2
The author submits that since 2011, he and other young Congolese refugees in
Rwanda started facing problems. Many of them were forcibly recruited to join the M23
rebel group. In 2012, the author was contacted by a man who knew his father. The man
offered him a scholarship to go the United States of America, presenting it as part of a
project between Rwanda and the United States for Congolese refugees. The author, who did
not have a passport, was requested to give a passport photo and his details to the
representatives of Congolese refugees. On 7 September 2012, the author received a
Rwandan passport, which contained an error in his date of birth. When he requested the
representatives to correct the error, they told him that they could not amend the error as he
might lose the scholarship.
2.3
The author was told that before travelling to the United States, there would be a
three-month preparation course and that he would be transported by bus to the course
location in northern Rwanda. Two days before his trip, his father was contacted by an
assistant of one of the representatives. This person was his friend and told him that no such
education programme existed in the United States. Instead, the author and others who had
been offered the same opportunity were going to be transported to training camps for the
M23 militia. As the author refused to join the M23 movement, he travelled to the border
between Rwanda and Uganda on the same day on which the departure for the training had
been scheduled. He crossed the border and remained in Uganda. The author’s family started
receiving messages from other Congolese refugee representatives arguing that the author
was a Congolese spy. The author also received hate messages from young people who were
taking part in the M23 training. At an unspecified date, the author returned home from
Uganda. The author’s father was called twice by State authorities of Rwanda to answer to
allegations of him being in Rwanda as a Congolese spy. For this reason, in November 2012,
the author and his family decided to go back to Goma in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
2.4
Once in Goma, the author worked as an interpreter for a non-governmental
organization a few days per week, as his brother did. 2 Government officials of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo started to accuse the author and his family of being M23
members, arguing that they were spying on the government and sending the information to
M23. In addition, M23 accused him and his family of not supporting them in their fight for
the Tutsi and claimed that they, therefore, did not deserve to be called Tutsis. 3 After
receiving several letters containing these accusations, the author went on a trip to Kenya. In
September 2013, when the author returned to Goma to convince his family to move to
Kenya, he found the dead bodies of his parents and his younger brother, and his sisters were
crying after having been violated.
2.5
The author decided to flee to Uganda, where he applied for asylum on 3 September
2014. The author was given refugee status on 23 November 2014. The author explains that
he had to leave his Congolese passport with the Ugandan police when he applied for
asylum and did not get it back, because the national authorities told him that they could
only give it back to him if he went back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2.6
In Uganda, the author met with refugees from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo who were former M23 militia members. In January 2014, the author was stopped in
Kampala by three people who accused him of having been involved in the issuance of
reports against M23. The author submits a Ugandan police report, dated 2 May 2014, which
states that the author had reported that he had been attacked by some members of the M23
rebels who had fled into Uganda. They accused the author of reporting them to a human
2
3
2
The author explains that he worked as an interpreter for an association for human rights that reported
to Human Rights Watch, and his brother worked for the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. The author also explains that he did not have a regular contract as an interpreter in these
organizations. He was paid per working day. His work involved meeting people who were victims of
the conflict and assuring the interpretation of their testimonies.
The author stated before the authorities in Sweden that he had travelled to Kenya to investigate the
possibilities of protection there, and that when he returned to Goma in August 2013, he found that his
family was dead and his older brother was missing.