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ELCA NEWS SERVICE - NEWSBRIEF

December 20, 1996

RWANDAN REFUGEES IN TANZANIA

Rwandan refugees in Tanzania, asked to go home, are fleeing deeper
into Tanzania.  Some are being stopped by Tanzanian soldiers and sent
back toward Rwanda.  Aid workers say others are slipping away
toward Uganda, Kenya, Malawi or even Mozambique, saying that
anywhere is better than Rwanda.  "We would rather die in Tanzania than
go back and be killed in Rwanda" say those willing to speak out.
Tanzania's government recently said the Rwandans must go home by
year's end.   Action by Churches Together (ACT) has trucks ready and
food stockpiled along the route home, with additional transport and
supplies positioned inside Rwanda.  ACT is a worldwide network of
churches, including the Lutheran World Federation, meeting human need
through coordinated emergency response.  Recently 320,000 refugees
chose -- or were persuaded by militants among them -- to go the other
way, leaving camps that have been their home for more than two years.
Lutheran World Relief (LWR) aid workers estimate that half the refugees
would go home if they could.  The other half, apparently dominant, fears
reprisal for the Rwandan genocide of 1994.  In November 600,000
Rwandans from Zaire were repatriated.  They are resettling with minimal
reports of trouble so far.  ACT and the Lutheran World Federation are
providing rations and building materials to these returnees.  An unknown
number, including former militia and soldiers, headed deeper into Zaire
instead.  ACT has delivered 12 tons of food and medicine to some of
these refugees near Lubuto, Zaire.  Roman Catholic Archbishop Pasinya
of Kisangani, a Zairean city on the edge of the conflict zone, has issued
a worldwide appeal.  His diocese "is in danger of a famine of
unimaginable magnitude," he said.  World leaders have failed to assure
safe corridors for aid, he said. The archbishop asked for urgent
distribution of food and medicine to "panic-stricken populations" of
refugees, displaced and residents in eastern Zaire.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service, (312)
380-2958 or AHAFFTEN@ELCA.ORG; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312)
380-2955 or FRANKI@ELCA.ORG; Melissa Ramirez, Assist. Dir., (312)
380-2956 or MRAMIREZ@ELCA.ORG