Congolese Refugee Community gathers in Houston to Memorialize Gatumba Massacre : Houston Indymedia

My girlfriend has been working with the Partnership for the Advancement & Immersion of Refugees (or PAIR) this summer, a group that primarily works with Congolese and Burundi refugees in Houston. Some of the refugees that have settled in Houston recently are Banyamulenge Tutsi, a group that has faced persecution and violence in the eastern Congo. Some of these folks took on the job of organizing the Fourth Annual Gatumba Genocide Memorial Gathering, and invited PAIR to attend.

The event saw Banyamulenge folks converge on Houston from all across the country with the goal of helping survivors and their families rekindle old bonds , forge new connections, pay respect to the deceased and continue healing raw wounds. The gathering also hoped to pressure the international community to bring the perpetrators of this violence to justice.

The community Center was packed with people dressed to the nines, it was a family friendly event, there were many babies and small children, some with tiny tuxedos. Many of the children there are participants in programs of PAIR and we socialized with the children and families of friends.

We missed the morning events which I think featured music and performances. We got there just in time to get lunch, which had plantains, rice, peas, french fries, some delicious fried things, as well as chicken and something with collareds and chicken for the carnivores.

After a long lunch break (the event was more than an hour behind scedule), the MC and a translator to english took to the stage, they introduced survivors Philippe and Rose, who both spoke at length abut how they were both nearly killed and lost family members to Hutu militias,as well as their faith to carry on and fight for the lives and dignity of Banyamulenge people. We left right after a photo slideshow by a non-profit that has been supporting Gatumba survivors, showing survivors in Africa and after being resettled as refugees in North America and Europe.

I am not particularly knowledgeable about the events that happened at Gatumba, beyond what I heard that day. I learned a lot from articles on Wikipedia, the New York Times, the Human Rights Watch Report and the The Gatumba Refugees Survivors foundation website.

It was impressive to see that work that these refugees who are living in very difficult situations are doing to raise awareness and advocate for the victims and survivors of terrible violence in the homeland they had to flee.

Lost her husband and was tortured by an armed faction prior to the Gatumba massacre