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KIGALI, Oct 9 (AFP) - More than 3,000 people demonstrated in the Rwandan capital Friday in support of peace talks aimed at ending two years of civil war.
The talks between the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and the government of President Juvenal Habyarimana, the military ruler of Rwanda for 19 years, started Tuesday in Arusha, northern Tanzania.
The demonstration was called by the former single party National Republican Movement (MRND), which supports Habyarimana, but opposition parties also planned to demonstrate and call for the president's immediate resignation.
Prime Minister Dismas Nsengiyaremye, appointed in April in response to opposition pressure, has accused the president and the MRND of trying to obstruct the peace process.
MRND ministers have refused to take part in meetings to prepare the ground for the peace talks.
The civil war started in October 1990 when the RPF, which is drawn mainly from the minority Tutsi tribe, launched an invasion from Uganda.
A ceasefire came into effect in August. The government accused the rebels of breaking it by attacking army positions and launching mortars at the town of Byumba in northeast Rwanda Thursday.
mgu/am AFP AFP SEQN-0293
