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This News Service is posted by the
International Secretariat of Amnesty International,
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ
(Tel +44-71-413-5500, Fax +44-71-956-1157)
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News Service 26/96
AI INDEX: AFR 47/02/96
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE 1100 GMT 20 FEBRUARY 1996



RWANDA/ BURUNDI:  URGENT STEPS NEEDED TO RESOLVE REFUGEE
CRISIS

GENEVA: A mass return of refugees to Rwanda and Burundi could
lead to further large-scale human rights abuses, Amnesty
International warned at a press conference in Geneva today.
      ~A mass return, especially if forced, could lead to a
significant increase in arbitrary arrests, detention without
trial, ~disappearances~ and extrajudicial executions,~
Amnesty International said.

      More than 200,000 Burundi refugees and about 1.7
million Rwandese are still in camps in Zaire and Tanzania;
other Rwandese are in camps in Burundi.

      According to recent reports, the Zairian authorities
are planning the progressive closure of refugee camps. These
refugees should not be forced to return unless their safety
is guaranteed, the human rights organization said in a report
released today.

       ~The governments of the Great Lakes region and the
international community should act now to solve this refugee
crisis,~ Amnesty International said. ~All the signs of a
further human rights catastrophe are present in the region.~

      Measures by Zaire to step up repatriation are creating
intense pressure on refugees to return. Under these
conditions, there are no guarantees that the resulting return
would be truly voluntary in all cases.

      ~The tragic reality is that these refugees often have
nowhere to go,~ Amnesty International said. ~Six months after
the forcible return of around 15,000 Rwandese and Burundi
refugees from Zaire, very little has been done to seek a
long-term solution to the crisis.~

      Amnesty International stressed that respect for human
rights is the key to any resolution of the refugee crisis.
The organization called on all states to respect their
international obligations to protect refugees from human
rights abuses

      Amnesty International recognizes that the refugee
crisis has led to a difficult situation for the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other
humanitarian organizations. However, the priorities of these
organizations and the host countries should be the voluntary
nature of any return and the human rights situation in the
country of destination.

      Amnesty International is appealing to the governments
of Zaire and Tanzania to keep their borders open to those
fleeing from human rights violations, and called on the
international community to make available adequate human and
material resources to enable host countries to shoulder the
burden.


      In its report, ~Rwanda and Burundi - the return home;
rumours and reality~, Amnesty International highlights the
three main factors which are preventing most refugees from
returning voluntarily: the absence of security, the absence
of justice, and manipulation of information about the real
situation in the two countries.

      ~The human rights situation remains critical,
especially in Burundi, where refugees are caught in the
middle of the violence,~ the organization said. ~Survival has
become a question of luck.~

      In Burundi, increasing violence continues to cause
thousands to flee, while Rwandese refugees in the country are
threatened by Burundi government security forces and armed
groups.

      Since October 1993, more than 100,000 people have been
killed in Burundi by security forces or armed opposition
groups, at a rate of around 1,500 each month during 1995.
Violence has become a daily phenomenon in the capital
Bujumbura and in the rest of the country.

      The country has become divided along ethnic lines and
fear prevents people from one ethnic group or political
affiliation from transgressing into areas dominated by the
other. The justice system is paralysed and the government is
unable to control the security forces, who continue to carry
out massacres with impunity.

      In Rwanda, approximately 66,000 people held in
connection with the genocide are detained in grossly
overcrowded prisons without charge or trial. Around 2,300
have died since 1994 as a direct result of inhumane
conditions and detention and ill-treatment have become a
substitute for justice, the organization said.
      Members of the former Rwandese government army and
militia known as interahamwe still control refugee camps,
using intimidation and propaganda to discourage refugees from
returning.

      Amnesty international believes that an essential pre-
condition for a voluntary return must be the establishment of
a fair system of justice, at the national and international
levels.

      The organization is calling for the deployment of a
sufficient number of independent and competent human rights
observers in Rwanda and Burundi as an important contribution
to the creation of a climate of security for returnees.

BACKGROUND

The mass movement of populations linked to widespread human
rights abuses is not a new phenomenon in the Great Lakes
region, but it has reached unprecedented proportions since
the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, which claimed as many as one
million lives. In its aftermath, two million Rwandese fled
their country for Zaire, Tanzania and Burundi.

      As a result of the massive human rights abuses in
Burundi since 1993, around 200,000 Burundi refugees are still
living outside their country. Around the same number are
internally displaced within Burundi. Thousands of people
continue to seek refuge in neighbouring Zaire and Tanzania.
      Sometimes, the only place these refugees feel safe is
in a refugee camp. Amnesty International delegates spoke to a
plumber from Bubanza (who cannot be named for security
reasons) in northwestern Burundi, who fled to Zaire in May
1995 after his village was attacked by militia. In August
1995, he was among those forcibly returned to Burundi by the
Zairian army. One month after his return, he still preferred
to remain in the relative security of the transit camp set up
at the border. He could not return to his village as his
house had been destroyed, but he was prepared to go anywhere
he could live in peace. He felt abandoned on all sides;
unable to go home, forcibly returned from Zaire, and unable
to go to Tanzania because the border had been closed since
March 1995.

      On 17 January 1996, 15,000 Rwandese refugees fled the
camp of Mugano in northeastern Burundi and entered Tanzania,
following clashes between the Burundi security forces and
armed groups. Several refugees who crossed the border
reportedly had gunshot wounds. On 20 and 21 January, a
further 16,000 also tried to flee Burundi. They were
initially turned back at the Tanzanian border. Some were
eventually let in; others began making their way back to
Rwanda; others remain in Burundi.

      In Rwanda, Amnesty International delegates interviewed
returnees who had not been specifically targeted by the
authorities. However, there are still no reliable mechanisms
to ensure that human rights are protected in the event of a
mass return. Despite statements by the Rwandese authorities
that refugees are welcome to return, very few refugees who
fled in 1994 have chosen to do so.

      Rwanda remains the scene of serious human rights
violations, even though these are not on the scale of those
committed during the genocide of 1994. The massacres by the
Rwandese Patriotic Army at Kibeho in April 1995 and Kanama in
September 1995 claimed several hundreds, if not thousands, of
civilian lives. Extrajudicial executions and ~disappearances~
continue. On 27 July 1995, Placide Koloni, former
administrator of Ruhango, and several members of his family
were assassinated. He had just been released from Gitarama
prison on the recommendation of a screening committee which
found that there was insufficient evidence against him.
Disputes over property and personal vendettas are also
common.

      Armed groups from the refugee camps in Zaire, Tanzania
and Burundi have killed unarmed civilians during cross border
attacks, in villages close to the border. Some of these
incursions appear aimed at eliminating witnesses of massacres
during 1994 for fear that they might denounce those
responsible.

      Amnesty International welcomes the efforts to set up
the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, but said that
the international community should intensify initiatives to
bring to justice individuals suspected of war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide.
ENDS\





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