EMBASSY VISIT TO GIKONDO TRANSIT CENTER

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000392

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/06/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM RW
SUBJECT: EMBASSY VISIT TO GIKONDO TRANSIT CENTER


Classified By: DCM Cheryl Sim for Reason 1.4 (b) (d)


1. (SBU) Pol/Econ Chief and Pol Assistant visited the
Gikondo Transit Center in Kigali in late May. Kigali City
Vice Mayor for Social Affairs Jeanne D'Arc Gakuba and center
officials conducted a tour of the large spare complex,
formerly a warehouse, in a mixed industrial and residential
area of the city. Officials displayed their hand-written
records of the center's inhabitants, 356 persons divided into
four categories: women street sellers, prostitutes, male
minors, and "inzererezi," which roughly translates from
Kinyarwanda as "layabout criminal vagabonds" - the center
director repeatedly referred to the 216 adult male
inhabitants of the center as "thugs."


2. (SBU) The center consisted of several enormous halls
with concrete floors, metal walls and high corrugated tin
roofs, the halls arranged around a concrete central
courtyard. The sleeping arrangements in each storage area
consisted of two persons per foam mattress on the floor (with
blankets provided) which were placed along the walls. Women
street sellers and prostitutes shared one area, with male
minors and adult males in two separate areas. The center
appeared quite dilapidated, but relatively clean and
well-ordered, and with much unused space. Each enormous hall
could easily have accommodated many more inhabitants --
indeed the people kept in each hall appeared almost lost in
the huge concrete spaces. Armed policemen kept watch inside
and outside the facility.


3. (SBU) Center officials said that normal procedure would
be for the inhabitants to be registered, interviewed, and
then transported to their home districts, although some of
the children would be sent to one of four Kigali centers for
homeless children (or returned to their families if
mistakenly incarcerated). Most of the inhabitants, said
officials, arrived after police "operations" to remove
homeless persons from the streets. Officials said the normal
stay at the center was one to three weeks, although several
of the inhabitants told us in side conversations they had
been there for one to two months. Officials freely admitted
many of the center inhabitants had been there before,
particularly among the prostitutes -- some on their fifth or
sixth stay. Officials said staff counselors and medical
staff conducted "training and counseling" on health issues
and improving personal habits.


4. (C) Pol/Econ Chief spoke on June 6 with ICRC Head of
Delegation Tobias Epprecht about the transit center.
Epprecht related that ICRC had visited the center in
February, after protracted discussions with Kigali officials.
No further visits had occurred, he said, as city officials
resisted ICRC requests for regular, including unannounced,
access. Epprecht said the ICRC was chiefly concerned by
what he described as poor family notification efforts by
center personnel. If city officials mistakenly placed
someone in the center, it was not clear how their families
could intervene to seek release. There had also been one or
two reports of abuse of center inhabitants by fellow inmates,
suggesting sometimes poor supervision of the center
population by center personnel. The ICRC had offered the
prospect of ICRC assistance to the city government, he said,
if regular ICRC access could be arranged.


5. (C) Comment. This center was heavily criticized in 2006
by Human Rights Watch as a scene of abusive treatment