(9 Dec 1997) English/Nat
The Rwandan army has taken journalists to a series of caves in the northwest of the country where a human rights group has claimed the army killed 8-thousand Hutu civilians last month.
The army has denied these reports and claims the caves were being used a command centre by Hutu rebels.
There were remains of some bodies in the caves, but not enough to prove or disprove the claims from both sides.
Here in the Kanama region of northwestern Rwanda, there's a series of caves at the centre of a row over human rights.
A Brussels-based Hutu group opposed to the Tutsi-dominated government claimed earlier this week that soldiers blocked the entrance to Nyakimana cave near Kanama commune and left people to die.
They say 8-thousand Hutu civilians died there last month.
The government in Kigali has denied these accusations and calls the latest U-N reports on possible killings by the Rwandan army as "fabrications and lies."
It claims the caves were used a command centre by Hutu rebels.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The way the report (from human rights groups) is written it all comes out as if the government is actually killing people. Which is wrong. So you go around and find people that have been cut to death, and you report that. You find others who were beaten by
civilians, and you report that. At the end of the day you have 1,000 cases, and you say these are human rights violations. In the last human rights report, published by the UN, I think they could only attribute 10 killings clearly to RPA (Rwandan army). The others
they say were unidentified. A hundred and something. And these unidentified come back to the RPA in the minds of the people."
SUPER CAPTION: Major Richard Sezibera, spokesman Rwandan army
The government arranged this trip by Kigali-based journalists.
While some dead bodies were visible, there are not enough to prove or disprove either side's claims.
But Kanama has been the site of several major battles in recent months between the Rwandan Patriotic Army (R-P-A) and the Hutu rebels.
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