Citation
MONTREAL, April 18 (Reuter) - A Rwandan human rights leader, who
escaped her country after hiding in the rafters of her home, pleaded
Monday for continued United Nations presence to keep Rwanda from
becoming a nation of killers.
Monique Mujawamariya, 38, whose face is scarred from a 1992
assasination attempt, said she hoped the United Nations will keep
Rwanda a top priority.
For nearly two weeks, thousands of people in Rwanda have been killed in
an orgy of ethnic violence involving the majority Hutu and minority
Tutsi tribes.
Forces of the Hutu-dominated government and rebels of the Rwanda
Patriotic Front are battling for control of the capital, Kigali.
If they slaughter everyone we will not have a chance to see our
country (as it was) again,
Mujawamariya told journalists when she
arrived in Montreal.
Because nothing will remain but the killers.
Mujawamariya, a leader of the Rwandan Human Rights and Public Liberties
Association, had received many death threats even before the country
plunged into violence following the death of Rwandan President Juvenal
Habyarimana in a rocket attack on his plane April 6.
But she said she would continue to fight for peace in Rwanda from
Montreal, and hoped to inform people about the atrocities.
Mujawamariya said gunmen stormed her neighbourhood after Habyarimana
was killed, dragging people out of their homes and executing them. She
said she hid in the rafters of her home for three days before escaping,
leaving behind her three children.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
