More than half a million Hutus from Rwanda also fled to Tanzania after the 1994 civil war. In December 1996, after most refugees in Zaire had returned home, Tanzania gave the refugees there until the end of the year to leave. United Nations officials said it was safe to return, but many Hutus, fearing retribution for the massacre of Tutsis in 1994, headed in the other direction, to hide in the forests.

But Tanzanian troops headed the refugees off and ordered them back. At the end of 1996, an estimated 300,000 refugees were returning home. There were some reports of brief fighting, and of soldiers firing in the air and using tear gas, but for the most part the exodus seemed to be peaceful.

Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu -- a Tutsi -- welcomed some of the refugees at the border. "I came to reassure them that nothing bad will happen to them," he said.

Conflict main page Zaire: A river of refugees Burundi: Tutsis seize power A brief history 1400-1994 Related stories and sites

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