Citation
Ethnic unrest in Rwanda has claimed the life of a provincial Governor and prominent spokesman for a party in Rwanda's governing coalition, a top-level Government official said yesterday in a telephone interview from New York.
The Governor, Pierre-Claver Rwangabo, was killed yesterday, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mr. Rwangabo, a Hutu from Butare and spokesman for the Social Democratic Party, was shot in his car while traveling with two companions after meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs, Seth Sendashonga, in Kigali.
The official said Mr. Rwangabo had told Mr. Sendashonga that tensions between the Hutu and the Tutsi, have been precarious
in Butare, a southern province with a reputation for relative tolerance.
The Rwandan official blamed Mr. Rwangabo's death on Hutu militias loyal to the former Government of President Juvenal Habyarimana, who died when his plane was downed by a rocket last April.
But international human rights groups say they suspect that Tutsi extremists may have been responsible for the killing of Mr. Rwangabo.
During the last few months, Mr. Rwangabo repeatedly criticized the Government's handling of Hutu who have been jailed after being accused in the killings of more than half a million Tutsi during the three-month civil war. Mr. Rwangabo had been pushing for speedier trials.
