ZAIRE: 5 RWANDAN LEADERS DETAINED

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32.2 هزار بار بازدید - 9 سال پیش - (14 Feb 1996) Natural Sound
(14 Feb 1996) Natural Sound

In the latest move to hasten the return of some nearly 200,000 refugees still holed up in  a camp in Goma near the Rwandan border, Zaire has detained five Rwandan leaders  Wednesday.

The men were taken away for questioning, apparently in order to prevent them trying to  keep the Hutu tribe refugees from leaving.

Very few refugees have so far accepted the offer to be taken back to their home  country, most  saying they fear of retaliation by the Tutsi tribe-led government.

Zairean government soldiers carrying assault weapons and rocket-propelled grenades  have been patrolling the Kibumba camp since Tuesday, telling the people inside that  the camp would be closed soon.  

Nearly two years after the massacres that killed nearly half a million mainly Tutu people  in Rwanda, the memories of the horror linger on.

There are still more than one (m) million refugees belonging to the rival Hutu tribe holed  up in 42 different camps in Zaire today.

But the patience of the Zairean government is running short - in an effort to encourage  the refugees to leave, it has moved to shut down the giant Kibumba camp near the  Rwandan border.

Soldiers with heavy weapons are stationed around the camp, closing off access and  banning all commercial activity inside.

Officials have repeatedly emphasised they will not force the refugees to leave.

But so far, the  voluntary repatriation effort seems to have had little success.

Most of the refugees in the camp are afraid to go back to Rwanda for fear of retaliation  by the Tutsi government over the genocide in the 1994 civil war.

A registration center inside the camp is half empty, as people nervously watch the  soldiers.

And those inside the bus en route to Rwanda don't seem particularly enthusiastic about  the future, either.

Meanwhile, Zaire is trying to improve relations with neighbouring Rwanda.

In what can be seen as a symbolic gesture of goodwill, they handed back a large  arsenal of weapons Tuesday in a ceremony at a small border post.

The weapons had been brought in by soldiers as they were fleeing Rwanda in mid-1994  and had been confiscated by Zaire.

The defense minister of Zaire was present at the ceremony and emphasised his hope  for future cooperation between the two countries.

The material ranged from light  tanks, artillery pieces and armoured personnel trucks to  a truckload of rusting assault rifles.

The transfer was part of an agreement reached in Cairo in late November at talks  between the two governments, brokered by former US President Jimmy Carter.

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