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KIGALI, Jan 22 (AFP) - Six people have been killed and dozens injured in demonstrations by supporters of Rwanda's Hutu rulers against a deal the government has struck with Tutsi rebels, according to an updated toll Friday.
The demonstrations were organised by the youth wing of the formerly sole ruling National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRNDD) to protest against a power-sharing agreement with the guerrillas of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
Three people were killed on Wednesday and 47 injured, 11 seriously. Another three died on Thursday, including one person who drowned in lake Muhazi during clashes in Gikoro district, east of Kigali. The fighting broke out between members of the MRNDD youth wing and young supporters of the opposition Democratic Republican Movement (MDR) and Social Democratic Party
In the Byumba region, in the northeast, demonstrators set up roadblocks on the main road south to the capital.
In Tumba, in the same region, MRNDD supporters destroyed houses belonging to MDR members and several people were molested.
In Kiyube, in western Rwanda, MRNDD militants who tried to block the road were seen off by MDR supporters. The MRNDD held a demonstration in Gisenyi, in the northwest, where President Juvenal Habyarimana was born.
The demonstrators warned they would continue their action until they bring down the government of Prime Minister Dismas Nsengiyareye, which conducted the talks with the rebels in Arusha, northern Tanzania.
The accord signed in Arusha on January 9 provided for the RPF rebels, from the ethnic Tutsi minority, to join the government. The hitherto sole ruling MRNDD is predominantly Hutu.
The Tutsi were traditional rulers in Rwanda before they were driven out in an uprising in the early 1960s, forcing thousands of them into exile in Uganda and neighbouring countries.
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AFP AFP SEQN-0174
