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KIGALI, Aug 4 (AFP) - Euphoria was tinged with anxiety here early Wednesday with only hours to go before the final signature to a peace agreement ending Rwanda's long-drawn and costly civil war.
The Rwandan government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels are due to sign the peace accord at Arusha in northern Tanzania on Wednesday, after more than a year of tortuous and on-and-off negotiations under Tanzanian government and Organisation of African Unity (OAU) mediation.
Most Rwandese welcomed with relief news that the final peace accord would be signed after agreement was reached on outstanding protocols - including the sharing of command posts in the 13,000-man new army - which had blocked the final agreement on the peace process.
The outstanding agreements were signed between government and RPF negotiators at Kinihira here two weeks ago.
Hopes that the peace accord would finally be signed were boosted when an advance government party, led by powerful chief of protocol, Ambassador Amri Sued departed for Arusha on Sunday.
Signature on the accord was earlier set for June 24, but had to be put off at the last minute after Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana objected to some of it's provisions.
But the government later said it would attend Wedneday's signing, sparking optimism and jubilation among the Rwandan population here.
The Tanzanian embassy here has been submerged with telephone calls from Rwandese enquiring about arrangements for airlifting well-wishers eager to go to Arusha for the "historical moment".
But despite requests by the Tanzanian embassy, Air Tanzania has refused to extend its flights, which terminate at Bujumbura in neighbouring Burundi, to the Rwandan capital to pick up Rwandese wishing to go to Arusha.
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