THOUSANDS of Rwandan Hutu refugees returned to a camp south of the Zairean city, Kisangani, yesterday, telling of a horrific slaughter that prompted their exodus last week.
Dozens of corpses of those too sick to flee fighting among Hutu refugees, local Zaireans and rebel soldiers lay festering in Biaro camp, 45 km south of Kisangani.
Aid officials and journalists allowed by rebel authorities to visit Biaro camp for the first time in over a week saw the bodies of many refugees who had been hacked to death. Others among the more than 5,000 refugees who emerged from the forest yesterday spoke of hundreds of dead in the dense undergrowth.
The condition of the refugees shocked aid workers finally allowed access to the area by rebels after the Zairean rebel leader, Mr Laurent Kabila, on Sunday demanded that the UN repatriate all the remaining Rwandan Hutu refugees in Zaire within 60 days.
But Mr Kabila's promise to allow aid organisations free access to areas where the refugees are believed to have fled fell flat at the first hurdle as an aid convoy was not allowed past Biaro.
"I am very disappointed we cannot go further," said Mr Aldo Ajello, the EU's special envoy to the Great Lakes region, who was on the convoy.
The refugees said they abandoned Biaro after being attacked by villagers aided by rebel soldiers. "We just ran, it was terrible," said one man. "There was shooting and people were being attacked with knives and machetes. It was total panic."
Rebel authorities have denied any role in the attacks and suggest they were initiated by local Zaireans envious of the free food and medical aid given to the refugees by aid agencies.
But tonnes of food lay scattered around Biaro and nothing appeared to have been looted.
In Geneva, UNICEF said 50 children and several adult Rwandan Hutu refugees at a hospital in Lwiro, 30 km north of the eastern border city of Bukavu, were driven off on trucks on Saturday after men in uniform beat up three medical workers.