A 21-truck convoy ferrying Congolese refugees, escorted by U.N. troops in helicopters and armoured personnel carriers, snaked safely into the east of the former Zaire on Tuesday, the United Nations said. Violent protests in the town of Uvira against the return of the refugees had previously forced them to stay in no man's land between Congo and Burundi, despite their desire to go home. "The convoy has set off and we have now crossed into Congo. The number of refugees is 1,618. They are being transported in 21 trucks which are now heading towards Uvira," said U.N. spokesman Leocadio Salmeron, who is in the convoy. Barricades on the road to Uvira had been removed and the refugees arrived safely at a transit camp in an old cotton factory in the town, Salmeron said, adding that the Congolese authorities transported the refugees. Most of them had fled to Burundi when fighting broke out in June in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Many are ethnic Tutsis, or Banyamulenge, and they feared reprisals after two dissident Tutsi army officers seized the town of Bukavu. However most then fled their temporary homes in Burundi, fearing for their safety there after 160 Banyamulenge were massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in August. Attitudes in eastern Congo to Banyamulenge have hardened radically since June, when dissident Tutsi officer Laurent Nkunda seized Bukavu, saying he was stepping in to stop genocide against his kin. The U.N. mission in Congo, MONUC, said it found no evidence of genocide and the rebels withdrew. On Sunday, U.N. troops fired in the air to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing demonstrators in Uvira, protesting against the refugees' return. One protester was killed by a stray bullet. The return of about 360 Congolese Tutsis two weeks earlier had sparked similar violence, as demonstrators chanted anti-Tutsi slogans and complained that Tutsi refugees were being given preferential treatment in repatriation plans.
