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KIGALI, Oct 10 (AFP) - Some 50,000 people demonstrated here Saturday accusing President Juvenal Habyarimana of blocking Rwanda's transition to multi-party democracy and calling on him to resign.
Several government workers joined the demonstration in defiance of a ban on doing so by the civil service and employment ministry.
Shops and markets did not open in the morning and security forces were out in strength during the protest, called by the opposition Democratic Republican Movement (MDR), the Liberal Party (PL) and the Social Democrat Party (SDP).
The leaders of the three parties, Faustin Twagiramungu (MDR), Justin Mugenzi (PL) and Frederic Nzamurambaho (PSD), said they were ready to bring peace to Rwanda and denounced "dictatorship" by the regime.
Government delegates are currently holding peace talks with rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) at Arusha in Tanzania, where mediators have said there are good chances of a settlement.
Saturday's protest came days after Prime Minister Dismas Nsengirayeme, a member of the opposition, accused General Habyarimana of trying to obstruct the peace process.
The charges came in a "confidential letter" that has circulated widely in the small central African nation since late last month.
Nsengirayeme was appointed last April to head a coalition government including members of Habyarimana's National Republican Movement for Democracy (MRND), who have refused to take part in the peace talks.
The FPR first invaded Rwanda from Uganda in October 1990. It recruits mainly among the Tutsi minority, opposed to the Hutu majority of the head of state.
A ceasefire began on August 1
mgu/nb/msa AFP AFP SEQN-0146
