It may never be known. Once terrified of leaving, today they were scrambling to get away. Some refugees must have followed the militia into the mountains, but it seems that the majority defied those they ve obeyed almost unquestioningly until today. The militia, the Interahamway, and the former government soldiers spearheaded the genocide of Tutsis two years ago, and had mounted guerrilla raids into Rwanda. Now they ve lost the protection of the refugee population.
People are coming over six and seven deep, the line is continuous.
If I translate that to a football crowd, I think we re talking about tens of thousands, not just a few thousand over. Aid workers were initially stopped by Zairean rebel soldiers, whose onslaught broke up the camp, but they re optimistic. We heard the water situation in there was quite good, and that the food situation was quite good, and looking at these people, that s absolutely the case. As you can see, most of these people seem to be in reasonably good shape. The rebels, backed by Rwanda s Tutsi-led government, are directing the refugees to the border.