Kimua, village of fear
English transcript, 4 March 2011
1
Timecode Title / Subtitle Voiceover / Sync
10:00:00:13
10:00:02:15
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[Kimua village, Walikale, DR
Congo]
[Lea]
The people are in prison,
really
The FDLR have realised that
they won’t be able to return
to Rwanda in force
So they have decided to
settle here permanently
The FDLR will harass and kill
the local population
[Susan Schulman VO]
This is my second trip to Kimua, a
village in the Walikale district of
Congo
The area has been plagued by the
FDLR, a highly organized force
who originally fled Rwanda in 1994,
after taking part in the genocide
there
When I was last here the FDLR
lived in the bush emerging to prey
on the Congolese villagers for food
and supply
A military operation to root out the
FDLR was underway
And a UN program to repatriate
FDLR members to Rwanda had
started to send a trickle of fighters
home
A year later, Kimua seems almost
peaceful. But this is an illusion
Kimua, village of fear
English transcript, 4 March 2011
2
10:01:04:15
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So that people will flee and
leave the land to them
[Cpt Pasayero, Monusco]
They have harassed us since
they arrived here
They took people’s
belongings, beat people,
captured us as if we were
hostages
[Bauna]
We can’t move freely
[Pasayero sync]
The reality is that the local law and
the power of this area is in the
hands of the FDLR
Those people are all from the
FDLR. They control all what is
happening, who is going to talk
with us, what is going to happen. At
any time they know everything.
[Susan Schulman VO]
The UN peacekeeping force
Monusco has a tiny outpost here
Troops mount regular patrols in the
region around Kimua
The FDLR are everywhere
And each village in this vast area
tells the same story
Armed FDLR fighters have moved
in from the bush and have no
intention of leaving
Kimua, village of fear
English transcript, 4 March 2011
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10:02:25:17
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In the village, every man is
like your father. Every
woman is like your mother
If they hurt someone in the
village, it’s like they have hurt
a member of my family
One woman was raped and
her eyes put out. Monuc
evacuated here to Goma
But this sickened us. We saw
it as if it were done to our
own mothers
Government operations
[against the FDLR] are
sometimes useful for us
Afterwards we can scavenge
equipment that has been left
behind
Or sometimes we might ask
soldiers for ammunition
The big thing would be to find
firearms
But when we have
ammunition we can throw the
cartridges in the fire
The cartridges explode and it
makes the FDLR here think
we have guns
Local boys have formed a self
defence group. Although they have
the backing of their community,
they have no weapons
[Susan Schulman VO]
The FDLR have plenty of weapons
Kimua, village of fear
English transcript, 4 March 2011
4
10:03:48:13
10:03:51:02
10:03:54:22
10:04:01:24
10:04:05:20
10:04:08:05
10:04:11:18
10:04:18:19
10:04:25:09
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10:04:48:03
We live in harmony with the
local population. They feed
us
The Congolese people here
give us food
They give it to us. But they
also give us plots of land that
we cultivate
They come with a gun, they
point the gun at you
That is not giving
You just let them take it
because you are afraid of
what will happen if you don’t
That’s why we have ‘given’
them the houses they have
taken
They have grabbed the
houses and displaced the
owners
[Major Nassor, FDLR]
I talked to the person that
lived in this house. We
agreed I would live here until
he wants it back
When he returns and asks
for the house back I will have
to leave
[Susan Schulman VO]
I ask pastor David Kashere about
Major Nassor’s house. Wary of
who might be listening in, he
speaks in a whisper
Kimua, village of fear
English transcript, 4 March 2011
5
10:04:55:22
10:05:02:16
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It is not Major Nassor’s
house. He took it by force
from [the] pastor
[Nassor] categorically
refuses to leave
We don’t want to give them
our fields or our food
But they just take them
The bushes behind us were
plots of land. People used to
farm there
But there was no reason for
them to continue. The FDLR
would steal the harvest
Local people became hungry
and malnourished, and said,
‘Why should we grow crops
for them?’
‘If we are to starve, let them
starve too. We won’t grow
anything ’
[Susan Schulman VO]
It’s not just the houses and the
fields. Last year this doctor showed
me how his clinic had been
ransacked by the FDLR. Now he is
too afraid to speak to me
The FDLR run the clinic now
They even have a tailor
In fact, every aspect of life here is
controlled by the FDLR.
Kimua, village of fear
English transcript, 4 March 2011
6
10:06:13:08
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We live in terrible fear. All the
FDLR carry guns
They threaten the people.
But no one says anything
We know they could
exterminate us
ENDS
This used to be the locals’ market
Now the FDLR are in charge
Local people still come to sell their
goods – they have nowhere else to
go
[Susan Schulman VO]
Whatever the future holds for
Kimua, for now it is clear: this is
FDLR territory