RWANDA: PRESIDENT PASTEUR BIZIMUNGU LAUNCHES HOUSE-BUILDING PROGRAMME FOR RETURNING REFUGEES FROM EASTERN ZAIRE

Record ID: 227984

  • Title: RWANDA: PRESIDENT PASTEUR BIZIMUNGU LAUNCHES HOUSE-BUILDING PROGRAMME FOR RETURNING REFUGEES FROM EASTERN ZAIRE
  • Date: 5th December 1996
  • Summary: KIGALI, RWANDA (DECEMBER 5, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. PAN PEOPLE MAKING MUD BRICKS AT SITE CHOSEN FOR HOUSING PROJECT IN BUGARANA DISTRICT OF KIGALI/ SV SOLDIERS LOOKING ON (3 SHOTS) 0.25 2. SLV RWANDAN PRESIDENT PASTEUR BIZIMUNGU MAKING MUD BRICKS 0.37 3. LV/SV PEOPLE MIXING UP MUD FOR BRICKS (2 SHOTS) 0.48 4. SV BIZIMUNGU SPEAKING ABOUT THE HOUSING PROJECT - SAYING IT IS DESIGNED AS A RECONCILIATION PROJECT BECAUSE PEOPLE FROM BOTH SIDES ARE INVOLVED (ENGLISH) 1.18 5. LV/SV BIZIMUNGU SAYING INTERNATIONAL HELP IS WELCOME, BUT THEY DON'T WANT TO WAIT FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO MAKE UP ITS MIND AND THAT THEY NEED MONEY FOR HOUSING (ENGLISH) (2 SHOTS) 1.47 6. LV PEOPLE MAKING BRICKS (2 SHOTS) 1.57 7. LV/SV SECOND HOUSING DEVELOPMENT SITE IN KAKIRU DISTRICT OF KIGALI/ LOCAL MAYOR OF DISTRICT ADDRESSING PEOPLE ABOUT PURPOSE OF PROJECT/ APPLAUSE (3 SHOTS) 2.15 8. SCU DEPUTY MINISTER FOR REHABILITATION, CHRISTINE UMUTONI, SAYING THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO PRIORITISE ACTIVITIES (ENGLISH) 2.39 9. SV PEOPLE AT SITE/ MAKING BRICKS 2.48 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 20th December 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KIGALI, RWANDA
  • City:
  • Country: Rwanda
  • Reuters ID: LVAELFFMNP1F01DQ69P8KT86IITW
  • Story Text: INTRO: Rwanda's president has made mud bricks to launch a house-building programme for more than half a million returning refugees to help bridge the rift of genocide.

    Sweating and wearing rubber boots, President Pasteur Bizimungu and almost the entire Rwandan cabinet spent two hours on Thursday (December 5) making bricks at 18 sites around the Rwandan capital Kigali to lead thousands at the start of the housing campaign.

    Bizimungu told reporters the programme would help end the housing crisis and foster solidarity in a society split by genocide in 1994 in which up to a million ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed by Hutu troops, militiamen and mobs.

    "All categories of people are here," the Hutu president said, adding that everyone needed a roof above their heads.

    "I am getting my hands dirty because I am a member of this community and I have to participate in national solidarity," he said, before continuing work on 50 large bricks he had made.

    The president said Rwanda would welcome international help with building projects, but wouldn't wait for it before beginning.

    The U.S. army estimates 630,000 Rwandan Hutus returned home between November 15 and 19 after being dislodged from camps in eastern Zaire by fighting between Zairean rebels and Zairean troops.

    Two million Hutus, many of them fearing reprisals for the mass slaughter, had fled to Zaire, Tanzania and Burundi.

    The returnees are competing for housing with 800,000 Tutsis who came home mainly from Uganda in 1994 after a civil war and genocide which the government estimates destroyed some 200,000 houses.

    Soldiers, school children, returning Hutu refugees and Tutsi genocide survivors laboured with hoes and bare hands at the sites and many said they would return to continue building.

    The cabinet's presence on Thursday was a bid for publicity for the house-building campaign but witnesses noted a high degree of public enthusiasm for the project and reconciliation.

    Deputy minister for rehabilitation, Christine Umutoni, said the government had to prioritise its activities.

    Funding would come from government, from local contributions and from international donors, according to Patrick Mazimhaka, minister for rehabilitation and social integration.


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