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KIGALI, March 8 (AFP) - Fifteen people have died in tribal fighting in the Bugesera region of southeastern Rwanda, informed sources said on Sunday.
More than 6,000 Tutsi, the minority tribe, have fled their homes to take refuge at the Catholic mission at Nyamata since clashes broke out overnight Wednesday.
Tension between the Tutsi and the majority Hutu, who hold power here, had been mounting in Bugesera since last Sunday, when the opposition Liberal Party openly attacked local authorities at a rally and also criticised the former sole legal political party, the National Republican Movement for Development.
The Liberal party is preponderantly Tutsi and is officially suspected of being the internal wing of the Patriotic Front, a rebel movement which attacked government troops in October 1990, after entering the country from Uganda, and has continued sporadic raids.
Security forces intervened to halt the clashes, arresting 40 alleged ringleaders and imposing a 12-hour dusk to dawn curfew.
But latest reports as of Saturday afternoon said the situation remained tense, with refugees still streaming into Nyamata and bringing seriously wounded people for treatment at the medical dispensary there.
mgu/jaw/ls AFP AFP SEQN-0095
