Citation
BRUSSELS, Feb 28 (AFP) - Several civilians, one of them an aged French
nun, died earlier this week in a massacre in northern Rwanda, a
spokesman for an armed opposition group in the east African country
said here Friday.
The spokesman for the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) denied that the
organisation had been involved in the killings, which he said took
place in the town of Rushaki on Wednesday.
He did not say how many people died, or in what circumstances, and it
there was no independent confirmation of the report.
The spokesman said the French woman, aged 87, was one of two nuns to
die in the massacre.
He said she was the first non-Rwandan national to be killed in the
violence which has been wracking the tiny east African state, a former
Belgian colony, for the past 18 months.
The spokesman added that the FPR only attacked military personnel,
previously identified with certainty.
He accused the Rwandan authorities of using the civilian population as
human shields
to protect its forces during the fighting.
av/ds AFP AFP SEQN-0401
