ZAIRE: RWANDAN REFUGEES DETERMINED TO RESIST DEPORTATION BACK TO RWANDA

Record ID: 275128

  • Title: ZAIRE: RWANDAN REFUGEES DETERMINED TO RESIST DEPORTATION BACK TO RWANDA
  • Date: 8th February 1996
  • Summary: KIBUMBA CAMP,ZAIRE FEBRUARY 1996.RTV-ACCESS ALL 1.GV DAWN BREAKING OVER KIBUMBA CAMP,TRUCK ON ROAD 0.11 2.GV OXFAM SILO AND CAMP 0.15 3.GVS HOMEMADE SHACKS 0.24 3.GVS FAMILY WASHING IN OPEN 0.28 6.GV KIMBUMBA CAMP 0.34 7.CU UNHCR SIGN +KIBUMBA+ 0.36 8.SV CHILDREN 0.39 9.SCU SMALL CHILD WITH RUNNY NOSE
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KIBUMBA CAMP,ZAIRE
  • City:
  • Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of
  • Reuters ID: LVA6LDCDYM7E14U276CUFKMMQ3QV
  • Story Text: Rwandan refugees in Kimbumba camp only five kilometres distant from the border with Rwanda wait for the Zairean army to exert pressure on them to return home.

    Kimbumba is a tent city sheltering 190 thousand people.It has only has primitve latrines and washing facilities and the threat of an epidemic is always present though International organisations such as Oxfam and the UNHCR do their best to help the refugees.

    There are some one million refugees from Rwanda sheltering in Zaire,members of Rwanda's Hutu majority who fled the country in 1994 during the civil war and the genocide of up to a million Tutsis and Hutu moderates butchered by Hutu mobs Zaire has been their unwilling host for nearly two years and the Western donor nations footing the bill for the twomillion Rwandan refugees in Zaire,Tanzania and Burundi want them to go home,but the refugees claim that conditions in Rwanda are not safe yet.

    The Zairean troops encicling the camp are charged with neautralising intimidators loyal to Rwanda's former Hutu leaders who discourage refugees from returning home,forecasting that they would all be slaughtered by the new Tutsi government which has promised them safe conduct.

    The refugees are understandably worried and vow to defy the Zairean troops.

    +Protect us God+ sang thousands of refugees,bibles in hand,facing priests in white robes at a mass in the camp.

    (11 February 1996)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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