Rwanda racked by `invisible genocide'

Nairobi (Reuter) - Tutsi survivors of genocide in Rwanda and witnesses were being hunted down by Hutu extremists in a new "invisible genocide" two years later, a human-rights group said yesterday.

In a report, "Killing the Evidence", on the second anniversary of the genocide, the London-based African Rights group said most of the killers were still at large and their targets were Hutu witnesses and Tutsi survivors of the first mass slaughter. "Genocidal extremists remain active, hunting down and murdering the survivors of the genocide and also targeting Hutu witnesses to intimidate them into silence and, if necessary, kill them too. This is the invisible genocide that ... continues, overlooked by most Rwandese and all international organisations."

But African Rights made only a passing mention of human-rights abuses by the Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Army, which took power in July 1994 and halted the genocide.

Aid workers suspect some former killers were among Hutu refugees returning to Rwanda on UN-sponsored visits from Zaire camps this year because they wanted to discover whether any survivors were left at home to accuse them of involvement.