TANZANIARWANDA REFUGEES EXODUS UPDATE

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=J_eZ4N0YJ8Y

(12 Dec 1996) English/Nat • • Hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees ordered to leave Tanzania by December 31 abandoned their U-N camps in northwestern Tanzania on Thursday. • • But many refused to go home - they fled eastward, further into Tanzania and away from the Rwandan border, to avoid repatriation. • • Aid workers blamed the exodus on a campaign of intimidation by Hutu extremists. • • Meanwhile others began arriving in the Nyakarabi transit camp in Rwanda - the first arrivals of Hutu refugees leaving Tanzania. • • Thousands of Rwandan refugees poured out of the Benaco camp in Tanzania on Thursday, but it was not clear if they were going home or into hiding. • • The refugees, ordered to leave Tanzania by December 31, were packing up and going - leaving a deserted camp behind. • • Many of them were fleeing eastward, further into Tanzania and away from the Rwandan border instead of going home. • • SOUNDBITE: (English) • And she has witnessed a minimum of 20-thousand people moving out of Benaco towards Lumasi camp, and Lumasi is east of Benaco so they are heading away from the border. That number could be greater, but it is difficult to estimate at this time. • SUPER CAPTION: Julie Johnstone, spokesperson for the World Food Programme • • Tanzania, which borders Rwanda, holds the largest remaining population of Rwandan refugees, 5-hundred and 35-thousand people. • • By late Thursday, at least four huge camps - Lumasi, Kitali, Mushuhura and Benaco - that used to hold nearly 3-hundred and 90-thousand refugees were nearly empty. • • Aid workers blamed Thursday's exodus on a campaign of intimidation by Hutu militants, who fear retribution for a 1994 genocide in Rwanda if they go back. • • Meanwhile others began arriving in the Nyakarabi transit camp in Rwanda. • • They came in lorry loads and were the first arrivals of Hutu refugees leaving Tanzania. • • More than one million (m) Hutus fled Rwanda in 1994, after extremists in the former Hutu-run government orchestrated the slaughter of at least 500-thousand minority Tutsis. • • At least 640-thousand returned from Zaire last month to escape fighting between the Zairean army and rebels, and aid workers had been optimistic that the refugees in Tanzania would follow. • • Many Hutus had refused to go back to Rwanda, now controlled by minority Tutsis, because they feared retribution for the genocide. • • The Tanzania government will not yield in its demand that all Rwandan refugees in northwestern Tanzania leave by the end of the month. • • SOUNDBITE: (English) • Well as of this afternoon it appears that several hundred thousand people may be on the move. It's impossible for us to confirm figures right now, but this movement of panic perhaps built on rumours that are being spread by certain people in the camps is apparently taking hold in the Ngara camps, much in a pattern in a few of the Karagwe camps earlier this week, and the Ngara camps number eight and there are six larger camps that to the best of our knowledge refugees from most or all of them are actually moving out of the camps. If to the east if there is a discernable direction and at the same time we have perhaps two thousand, almost two thousand people returning to Rwanda today. So this clearly means that people aren't opposed to repatriation. This confirms figures we've had in the past few days but rather people may be reacting to these large numbers, reacting to the pressure of numbers moving out of the camps. • SUPERCAPTION: Paul Stromberg, U-N-H-C-R spokesman • • • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

#############################

New on site