Despite the fact gunmen raked a car with bullets trying to kill Rev. Mutima Peter of Westbrook, the clergyman sees signs of peace for his homeland.
Peter was hit by repair bills but otherwise returned home unscathed last month after six weeks in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. “Killings are still going on in the Congo,” Peter said last week.
Fleeing violence in Central Africa, Peter came to the United States in 1993. He and his wife, Zera Nabujeyi, and their children have lived in Westbrook since 1998.
For the past several years, Peter has returned to the three Central African nations of Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda in an effort to reconcile warring factions of the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. He’s planning another trip later this year.
A native of the Eastern Congo, Peter, a Tutsi, is the pastor of International Christian Fellowship in Portland. He also heads Central Africa Vision, an outreach aiding refugees and those left widows and orphans by genocide that claimed a million lives in Rwanda in 1994.
In December, Peter’s car was targeted. He was visiting local pastors in Goma, capital of the North Kivu province in Democratic Republic of Congo, when gunmen toting automatic assault rifles attacked his car just after an attempt to meet the nation’s vice president.
On Dec. 18, the nation held a constitutional referendum, which preceded a free presidential election to be held this spring. Peter encouraged a local church flock in Goma, which is near the border with Rwanda, to do “God’s will.”
Following the church service, Peter, accompanied by two local pastors, went to the vice president’s office, seeking a meeting. While waiting inside, they heard messages over the public address system. “How did he get here? Who told him to come,” they heard.
Peter and the pastors left in a car, which Peter had rented. His host pastor, sensing a threat, insisted that Peter get out of the car at his hotel, a short distance from the pastor’s church.
Continuing on towards the church, the pastors spotted a car following them. Arriving at the church, the pastors exited the car and four men jumped from the car behind them. One, armed with a knife, rushed up to the car and slashed the arm and face of Peter’s driver.
One of the other assailants, apparently intending to gun down the pastors, accidentally killed one of their own. The pastors were beaten. “Lawlessness is still there,” Peter said.
The gunmen believed that Peter was lying on the floor of the car and riddled it with gunfire. “They were shooting at the car thinking I was there,” Peter said.
Peter is expected to pay for the car and is being held accountable for the medical bills of the driver, who was knifed, a total of $1,700. “The driver survived but needed surgery,” Peter said.
Peter was unable to depart the country immediately after the shooting because the borders were closed for three days during the referendum election. He was stranded until Dec. 20.
He said there have never been free elections in Democratic Republic of Congo, which was renamed in 1997 after being called Zaire in 1971.
In previous elections, there would be only one candidate, Peter said. “Just to hold an election is a big success,” he said. “We hope it’s a big step towards peace.”
Peter also helped found the Evangelical Church of Bethlehem, which has congregations in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The church has both Hutu and Tutsi members and Peter sees that as positive in the pursuit of peace.
Through the church, the two tribes are trying to work together, he said. “(It’s) a church berthed in reconciliation,” Peter said.
Before crossing the border into Democratic Republic of Congo from Rwanda, Peter attended the funeral of his dad, who died on Nov. 15. Peter’s mother lives in Rwanda, where his parents moved in the 1990s. And, while in Rwanda, Peter also attended the wedding of a daughter, Mugisha Butoto, who married a man from Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Peter’s wife arrived in Rwanda on Dec. 21 for the wedding. But Peter didn’t tell his wife about the shooting incident until after she arrived. “I knew if I told her there was no way she would come,” he said.
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