FBIS4-23846 "drafr117_b_94002"
FBIS-AFR-94-117 Daily Report 16 Jun 1994
EAST AFRICA Tanzania

Camp Ban on Suspected Mass Killers Sparks Riot

Camp Ban on Suspected Mass Killers Sparks Riot AB1606195794 Paris AFP in English 1659 GMT 16 Jun 94 AB1606195794 Paris AFP English BFN [Text] Nairobi, June 16 (AFP) -- Rwandan refugees rioted in a camp in Tanzania and threatened to kill foreign relief workers in anger at a ban on suspected mass killers entering the camp, aid officials said Thursday [16 June]. About 50 foreign aid workers left the camp after angry refugees hurled stones and shouted threats at them on Wednesday, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. The rioters dispersed after Tanzanian police went into the Benaco Camp near the northern border with Rwanda and fired in the air, the spokesman, Panos Moumtzis, said in Nairobi. The trouble started when a well-known Hutu suspected of committing atrocities during Rwanda's 10-week ethnic and political bloodbath returned to the camp. The man, who was not named, had been arrested by Tanzanian police in April with about 15 other Rwandans suspected of massacres when they crossed the border into Tanzania along with hundreds of thousands of refugees. They were freed a week ago on condition that they stayed out of the refugee camp, but one man returned on what he said was a visit to his wife and children. A riot erupted when UNHCR representatives went to the camp to protest against his presence which they feared could spark trouble, Moumtzis said. "There were about three thousand people shouting, screaming and throwing stones," he said. "They wanted him to stay at the camp. They dispersed when Tanzanian policemen went in and started shooting in the air." Relief officials say many suspected mass murderers have crossed into Tanzania, mingling with civilian refugees from fighting. About 300,000 Rwandans including Hutus and minority Tutsis are encamped at Benaco. Up to half a million Rwandans, mostly Tutsis and Hutu opposition supporters, have been butchered since the April 6 death of president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, rekindled the civil war between mainly Tutsi rebels and the government, and sparked massacres committed mainly by extremist Hutu militias.