The Refugees Won't Go

GOMA, ZAIRE: In a sign that neighboring countries are reach the limits of patience with the hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees swelled in border camps, Zairian soldiers arrested five Rwandan refugee leaders who have resisted efforts by the United Nations and Zaire to persuade them to return home. Nairobi Bureau Chief Andrew Purvis reports from Goma: "When the Zairian operation to shut down the camps started Tuesday, hundreds of troops patrolled the main entrances to the largest camp in the region as part of an ongoing operation that has been termed an 'economic embargo'. So far, it has yet to persuade any refugees to return. The Zairians may step up the operation in coming days -- possibly by moving into the camp itself to shut down businesses. So far, there has not been any violence." A predominantly Tutsi government took power in Rwanda last year after half a million people werev slaughtered in a civil war, mostly by militias of the Hutu tribe. The 1.7 million refugees now dispersed on Zaire, Burundi and Tanzania -- most of them Hutu -- still refuse to return. "The (U.N.) is running out of money, that is why they want us to go home," Hermann Twajamahoro, a refugee leader, told the Associated Press. "They are going to force us home. They say it's voluntary, but in reality it is by force."