In April 1994, long-standing tensions between Hutus and Tutsis,
the two main ethnic groups in the African state of Rwanda,
exploded when the plane of Juvenal Habyarimana, the Hutu
president, was shot down. A Hutu militia - along with thousands
of ordinary Hutus - massacred more than 800,000 Tutsis. But when
the exiled Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) returned to
the country as many as two million Hutus, fearing reprisals,
fled across the border to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR
Congo) Sixteen years on, many of those Hutus want to return home
as part of a reconciliation and repatriation programme sponsored
by the UN and the Rwandan government. But what sort of welcome
awaits them? Sorious Samura followed some refugees as they
returned to Rwanda. Most refugees in the United Nations refugee
transit camp in Goma, in the eastern DR Congo, are Rwandan Hutus
who fled Rwanda in 1994, following the victory of the invading
Tutsi-led rebel force, the RPF. They were joined by some of
those responsible for th