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Yunghi Kim 's statement HERE regarding Visa Pour L'image exhbition controversy and the mis-information that has been circulating in the French press. And the NYT Lens Blog HERE with caption correction. 

DISCLOSURE: The caption below, written in 2014, includes story information revealed after original publication in 1994-1996. Previous captions from 1994 and 1996 were indicative of what was known when the events were considered a refugee crises. This widely published and recognized work ran with said captions. The events in Rwanda are now universally accepted as a genocide and current captions reflect this reality to avoid confusion. 

Deadly Road Home: Goma, Zaire 

Rwandan Refugee Crisis of In 1996, the deadliest refugee crisis in recent history came to an abrupt close as hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Hutus, many who had roles in the genocide, began to journey home to Rwanda. 

The refugees had fled, escaping after genocidal rampaging caused the murder of at thousands mostly Tutsi. In refugee camps in neighboring Zaire (Congo) through 1994, another half-million Rwandans died of cholera claiming murders and refugee victims indiscriminately. 

In the Mugunga camp, then the world's largest refugee camp, and despite months of fighting between rebels nearby, and intimidation by the camp's own Hutu militia not to return to Rwanda, refugees began to stream homeward. In early November, and within just four days, some 800,000 refugees had crossed the border back into Rwanda. Families, many decimated by the ethnic cleansing, had been separated for two years and were reunited. 

All images copyright 2015 Yunghi Kim, all rights reserved. Images on this site can not be used without prior written permission from Yunghi Kim. 

 

  • After weeks of fighting in and around Goma, garbage burns in the streets after looting.
  • Residents of Goma cut off from outside and without food, desperately chase after a World Food Program truck distributing the last of its supplies.
  • Residents who had fled Goma, to escape the fighting have their bags searched upon returning home.
  • Food riots were a daily occurrence in Goma, as guards tried to control the crowds  fighting to get inside a warehouse.
  • At Goma Central Hospital, no pain killers were available to relieve the suffering of those wounded in the fighting. This man's leg had been amputated after he was injured in fighting.
  • After enduring disease, hunger for two years in the refugee camps,  800,000 Rwandans on Nov. 15 suddenly leave the refugee camps for the long walk home.
  • After enduring disease, hunger,  for two years in the refugee camps,  800,000 Rwandans on Nov. 15 suddenly leave the refugee camps for the long walk home.
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  • Old Hutu government soldiers who controlled Mugunga camp massacred refugees in attempts to keep them from returning home to Tutsie-controlled Rwanda. This women and 24 other people were found dead at this site. Two survived and were taken to the hospital by aid workers.
  • A man tries out a  guitar in a truck filled with looted goods, Mugungu refugee camp.
  • A soldier's body lies on the road in Mugunga camp. Old Hutu government soldiers in the camp massacred refugees in attempts to keep the refugees from returning home to Tutsie-controlled Rwanda.
  • At a transfer station set up by the United Nations near Kigali, Rwanda, thousands of Rwandans scrambled to board trucks that would take them to their homes in more remote areas of Rwanda.
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