Rwanda’s New Leaders Urge Refugees to Come Home But The Killers Maintain Their Death Grip on the Camps

Efforts were underway in Rwanda in August 1994 to prevent another mass exodus of refugees in the battle-scared country into neighboring Zaire (Congo). I met in the Rwandan capital Kigali with the country’s new Prime Minister, installed by the victorious Rwandese Patriotic Front, to discuss those efforts.

Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu calls the return to their homes of the country’s displaced population the top priority of the new government. He says that is why ministers in his cabinet have launched a series of urgent missions into southwestern Rwanda, where more than a million displaced members of the country's majority Hutu ethnic group -- fearful of their future under the new Tutsi dominated regime -- are sheltering under the protection of French military forces.

Those French forces are to withdraw next week and aid workers and UN officials are concerned most of the Hutus could flee into neighboring Zaire (Congo). Their exodus is being urged by extremists of the ousted Hutu led government who contend they will share in the blame for the massacres of Tutsis carried out during the civil war .

But Mr. Twagiramungu says the message his ministers are carrying to the displaced Hutus this week in public appearances throughout the southwest is clear: the country's new leaders have not taken power to carry out even more killing.

“We are not here to kill, to avenge or have any reprisal or retribution for that matter. We are here to govern and we want to govern, we have to make sure that the security for the population is assured. This is a political message.”

At the same time as Rwanda's new leaders try to persuade people to stay the United Nations is attempting to deploy a replacement force of peacekeepers from other nations to take over from the French in the southwest. UN military spokesman Jean-Guy Plante tells reporters the United Nations is also seeking approval for a plan to turn the southwest into a demilitarized zone as an additional measure to build confidence among the displaced Hutus and to keep them in Rwanda. Major Plante says high level discussions on the DMZ proposal are currently underway between UN officials and representatives of the new Rwandan government.

But Prime Minister Twagiramungu says the idea is unacceptable and that his government’s sovereignty over its own territory cannot be compromised.

“It is an idea which is going nowhere. It is completely false. And I think it can only go to what we call a ‘cul-de-sac’ (dead end). So we do not understand why the demilitarized zone should exist. We have the government. We believe this government is going to be stable.”

UN military officials and relief workers now say the number of Rwandans fleeing into Zaire (Congo) from the southwest are not as large nor as alarming as some initial reports that suggest it. But they say they are continuing to monitor the situation closely as the date of the French withdrawal draws ever closer. A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says aid workers are preparing additional sites for new refugee camps in Zaire (Congo) in the event a mass exodus does take place.