The forgotten refugees of an invisible war

THEY are the forgotten refuges, innocent victims of a vicious, invisible war that few ever hear of. Once more, the balance of misery in Central Africa has reasserted itself - just as a million refugees return home to Rwanda, their fellow Hutus are fleeing Burundi in large numbers.

However, the masses now teeming into the camps around Kibondo in Tanzania have no blood on their hands - unlike the Hutus in Rwanda they count no genocidaires among them.

Yet their plight under the yoke of a regime dominated by Tutsis, a 15 per cent minority in the population, was largely ignored.

Last July, 250 refugees a day were crossing from Burundi to Tanzania by October, it was 400 a day and in November, the numbers had swelled to 4,000 daily. Most make their way to camps hacked out of forests around Kibondo, about 20 miles from the frontier.

All are fleeing from a dirty war marked by appalling atrocities on both sides and a virtual news blackout. Only the most foolhardy journalist or human rights observer now wanders into the Burundian countryside, where hundreds are dying each week and everyone is a target.

The soldiers came to Jean Minani's secondary school in Ruyigi last August. They called the Hutu pupils assassins and warned them they would be hunted down.

"We didn't take it seriously at first, but the next week, after some soldiers had been killed, they came into the village and started shooting. Many died. Then they attacked with their bayonets," he adds making a stabbing motion with his hands. Jean fled that night with a dozen classmates to Tanzania.

Aloise came to the camp three years ago after been beaten by the army in his Village, Burure, near the Zairean border. When two other villagers disappeared, he took flight and hasn't returned. People have gone back and they haven't returned," he said.

Kibondo was already one of the poorest places in the world and the arrival of 100,000 refugees has stretched resources to breaking point.

Large swathes of forest have been felled to provide firewood for the new arrivals. Local schools have not reopened since they were occupied by the refugees who used the desks and books as fuel for cooking.

Even the hospital beds are bare after the bedsheets were used to bury dead refugees.

Just as in eastern Zaire, the local inhabitants are now paupers in their own land. While the refugees, though in no way prosperous, are buoyed up by food rations from international agencies, the Tanzanians have to cope with a collapsed economy and increased competition for resources.

The camps inspected yesterday by the Minister of State for Overseas Co operation, Ms Joan Burton, and her officials have taken on a permanent look. The refugees built their mudbrick houses last year and are busy cultivating their plots. The older camps have primary schools and churches.

To the credit of the local authorities and the UNHCR, the Kibundo camps they run are humane places, free of the tension and violence of the former Hutu camps in eastern Zaire. The refugees are well fed and their health and education is being attended to. Plans have been laid for an expansion of the camp should the situation in Burundi deteriorate, as many expect it will.

Ms Burton said yesterday she was concerned that the crisis in Burundi would become a forgotten conflict now that so many refugees had returned to Rwanda. She accused both the Burundian army and the Hutu rebels of committing "serious atrocities" and warned that the army would have to be brought to justice for its crimes.

"The EU will have to exert extreme pressure on the regime to get the army to stop the human rights abuses currently going on."

Dr Julius Nyerere, the former Tanzanian president who is leading efforts to bring peace to the region, had expressed pessimism to her about the likelihood of a ceasefire.