Refugees Stream Back to Rwanda From Tanzania

Hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees were crossing home Sunday after a 2 1/2-year exile in Tanzania, their will to remain broken by a few well-aimed blows from Tanzanian soldiers.

“There are over 300,000 people crossing, and more are on the way,” said an official of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees at this border post.

Refugees said that Tanzanian soldiers entered the sprawling Benaco camp, 10 miles from the frontier, and ordered everyone to leave.

“Some of the young men and some of the leaders refused and shouted for all of us to stay,” Claude Ntaramere said. “But then they started hitting those who wanted to stay, and they changed their minds.”

Ntaramere said he had not wanted to leave, but once his neighbors decided to go, he joined them.

“I fear what will happen in Rwanda,” he said. “But I am tired of walking, and I will go back now.”

In November, the Tanzanian government said all refugees should leave their camps and return home by this month, but more than 160,00 refugees instead packed up their belongings and headed deeper south into the country.

Tanzanian soldiers finally turned back the Benaco residents after they had gone nearly 61 miles, and the refugees filed back into their camp Friday.

Their numbers were swelled by tens of thousands of other refugees from nearby Lumasi, Keza and Kitali camps who had originally fled south but also turned around.

Sunday, as hundreds of Tanzanian soldiers formed a huge cordon around Benaco, heavily armed soldiers--all also wielding sticks--entered the camp and suddenly the gates burst open and people began streaming out.

Soldiers lined the route but appeared calm and relaxed, chatting with refugees as they passed.

As they crossed the narrow bridge over the Kagera River into Rwanda, they were greeted by Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu, who told the Hutu refugees they would be safe.