Citation
BUJUMBURA, May 11 (AFP) - Burundi officials have moved 1,142 refugees who fled tribal massacres in Rwanda in March to a new camp at Nyaruhengeri, further from the border, officials said Monday.
Medical staff in Bujumbura gave treatment to 203 of the refugees before they were sent on to the new camp in Muyinga province from Renga in the northeast of Burundi.
When Hutus attacked Tutsis in Rwanda's southeastern Bugesera district early in March, 182 people were killed, 1,500 houses razed to the ground and some 1,200 animals slaughtered, according to the official toll.
Rwandan human rights activists and diplomats in Kigali said the massacres left at least 300 dead.
Rwanda has in turn moved Burundi refugees who were at Nyrushishi camp in Rwanda's southwest Mubuga district into the interior of the country, Burundi officials said.
The refugees crossed into Rwanda in April to flee fighting between the armed extremist Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People (Palipehutu) and Burundi troops in the northwestern Cibitoke province.
The clashes left 43 dead, according to officials.
Both countries, traditionally ruled until independence by the minority Tutsis, have taken steps to end single-party rule.
dn-jpc/nb/msa AFP AFP SEQN-0167