Title: Rwandan Refugees in Tanzania ELCA NEWS SERVICE - NEWSBRIEF December 20, 1996 RWANDAN REFUGEES IN TANZANIA Rwandan refugees in Tanzania, asked to go home, are fleeing deeper into Tanzania. Some are being stopped by Tanzanian soldiers and sent back toward Rwanda. Aid workers say others are slipping away toward Uganda, Kenya, Malawi or even Mozambique, saying that anywhere is better than Rwanda. "We would rather die in Tanzania than go back and be killed in Rwanda" say those willing to speak out. Tanzania's government recently said the Rwandans must go home by year's end. Action by Churches Together (ACT) has trucks ready and food stockpiled along the route home, with additional transport and supplies positioned inside Rwanda. ACT is a worldwide network of churches, including the Lutheran World Federation, meeting human need through coordinated emergency response. Recently 320,000 refugees chose -- or were persuaded by militants among them -- to go the other way, leaving camps that have been their home for more than two years. Lutheran World Relief (LWR) aid workers estimate that half the refugees would go home if they could. The other half, apparently dominant, fears reprisal for the Rwandan genocide of 1994. In November 600,000 Rwandans from Zaire were repatriated. They are resettling with minimal reports of trouble so far. ACT and the Lutheran World Federation are providing rations and building materials to these returnees. An unknown number, including former militia and soldiers, headed deeper into Zaire instead. ACT has delivered 12 tons of food and medicine to some of these refugees near Lubuto, Zaire. Roman Catholic Archbishop Pasinya of Kisangani, a Zairean city on the edge of the conflict zone, has issued a worldwide appeal. His diocese "is in danger of a famine of unimaginable magnitude," he said. World leaders have failed to assure safe corridors for aid, he said. The archbishop asked for urgent distribution of food and medicine to "panic-stricken populations" of refugees, displaced and residents in eastern Zaire. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service, (312) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955 or [log in to unmask]; Melissa Ramirez, Assist. Dir., (312) 380-2956 or [log in to unmask]