RWANDA: UN CRITICISED OVER HANDLING OF 1994 RWANDA MASSACRE

(21 Sep 1996) Eng/Tutsi/Nat

The Vice-President of Rwanda criticised the United Nations Friday, of not doing enough to bring the masterminds of the 1994 Rwanda massacre to justice.

More than half a million Rwandans died in the slaughter.

Major General Paul Kagame accused the UN of failing to arrest prime suspects in the Hutu government-backed massacre, of Rwanda's mostly minority Tutsis during the civil war.

His accusations were levelled ahead of Monday's start of the trial of twelve alleged war criminals.

Meanwhile, more than two years after the killings ended, many Tutsis are still afraid to return to their homes.

APTV visited the western Rwandan province of Kibuye, where massacre survivors say they are being hunted down and killed by former government forces just over the border in Zaire.

On a clear day, Zaire is visible from the western Rwandan province of Kibuye.

On the Rwandan side--the mainly Tutsi survivors of the slaughter, planned and executed by the former Hutu-dominated government.

Across the lake are refugee camps housing the Hutus who fled the country when Tutsi- led rebels swept to power.

In Kibuye there are now just eight thousand Tutsi survivors of an original population of 250-thousand.

Those who remain are subjected to constant attacks from the former government forces across the lake.

Villages throughout the province are deserted -- or at least give the impression of being so.

These men were hiding among the burnt out buildings in a settlement near the village of Gishyta.

They say Hutu infiltrators continue to murder local Tutsis.

SOUNDBITE: (Rwandan)
Now the killings are not carried out as openly as in 1994 but we have infiltrators who are coming here to try to kill us. Because we are survivors and because we saw the killings and we are able to testify -- even when they are still trying to kill us.
SUPER CAPTION: Pascal Nkusi, displaced peasant farmer

They are sceptical about the international tribunal in Arusha.

SOUNDBITE: (Rwandan)
We heard about that international tribunal but we don't know what it will do for us because we live here with the killers. Even here in Rwanda we don't know how they are going to be tried. Now we can say nothing. Maybe later when they are punished but now we can say nothing.
SUPER CAPTION: John Ukwigize, displaced peasant farmer

At least 15-thousand Tutsis were lured into this stadium in Kibuye with promises they would be safe here.

The ensuing massacre was allegedly ordered by Kibuye's former governor, Clement, Kayishema, the most senior member of the former Rwandan regime facing trial in Arusha.

SOUNDBITE: (Rwandan)
The militias and soldiers surrounding us in these hills started to use guns, grenades and heavy weapons to kill. After most of us were killed, the militias came to the stadium and started to use machetes. That is how the story happened.
SUPER CAPTION: Kibuye town official

More than 80-thousand people have been accused of participation in the genocide.

Around five thousand of them are crammed into the Gikondo Prison, a former warehouse complex in the capital Kigali.

There are serious doubts about whether the Rwandan judicial system has the resources to process so many people.

1.6 million Hutus don't trust the new regime to deal with them fairly -- they're still living outside the country in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.

Those who survived the slaughter want to see someone pay for what happened.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Papiania Hakizabera, leader of Kibuye Solidarity


SOUNDBITE: (English)






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