(28 Nov 1996) French/Nat
Hutu refugees have started arriving back in their villages across Rwanda and reclaiming their old homes from their Tutsi occupiers.
The Rwandan government has announced that all property must be returned within two weeks -- a decision certain to increase friction between returnees and their former neighbours.
An estimated 600-thousand Hutus have returned from refugee camps in eastern Zaire since November.
They left in 1994 after a Tutsi army overran the country following the genocide of Tutsis by Hutu extremists.
Before the 1994 war the border town of Kanama was a predominantly Hutu area.
Most of the town's Hutus fled over the border into Zaire after Tutsi rebels won their war with the then Hutu government of Rwanda, and ended the slaughter of almost a million Tutsis.
With the Hutu extremist militia -- the Interahamwe -- in disarray, large numbers of Hutus have escaped their control and are coming home.
One Hutu returnee is Jean Sekidende. He fled to the infamous Mugunga camp in East Zaire in 1994.
He lost two children in the genocide. A third child disappeared in the massive flow of refugees back to Rwanda.
Sekidende turned up in his home town of Kanama earlier this month with his remaining five children.
For now he's staying at the house of a brother -- he can't yet go home.
SOUNDBITE: (French)
When I arrived here I saw that someone else was living in my house. I passed by and looked for another place to stay, while waiting to get my house back.
SUPER CAPTION: Jean Sekidende, returnee
The authorities of Rwanda have announced that within 15 days all property has to be given back to the owners -- a decision certain to increase friction between returnees and their former neighbours.
Another sensitive issue concerns separating extremists responsible for the genocide of the Spring of 1994 from the huge flow of people returning to Rwanda.
Some returned Hutus know the local Tutsis fear the return of some of these killers. But justice must be done.
A spiral of vengeance has to be avoided, says returned Hutu Dr Joseph Ntibiringkwa, who had a medical practice in Kigali before the war.
SOUNDBITE: (French)
The country has laws and they (those who committed genocidal crimes in 94) have to be punished according to these laws. But I fear and would not like to see that people seek blind vengeance.
SUPERCAPTION: Dr Joseph Ntibiringkwa, returnee
In the flow of returnees are also some soldiers from the former Rwandan army - F-A-R - which was defeated by the Tutsi-led Patriotic Front in 1994.
Like most F-A-R soldiers, this former corporal has spent the past two years in a refugee camp in Zaire.
The return of men like this -- however innocent they are -- is a very sensitive and difficult element of the repatriation.
Many Tutsis view the return of their former neighbours with a mixture of joy and alarm.
Teacher Speciose Murekatete lost several family members in the genocide of 1994.
She is happy that all Rwandese - Hutus and Tutsis - are now back together but she clearly fears that in the flow of returnees are some with blood on their hands.
SOUNDBITE: (French)
We are afraid that some people that killed our families will harm us again.
SUPERCAPTION: Speciose Murekatete, teacher
The return of refugees brings hope of a final reconciliation between Hutus and Tutsis.
But memories of the bloody genocide of 1994 remain fresh, and Rwanda faces a long and difficult task in rebuilding confidence between its two peoples.
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