BUJUMBURA - Burundi has turned down more than 95 per cent of applications from Rwandan asylum seekers who fled their country rather than face local courts trying suspects in the 1994 genocide, officials said on Monday.
Interior Minister Evariste Ndayishimiye said that of the 1,290 people whose applications had been checked by a national commission, only 59 were eligible, representing 4.6 per cent. The rest, representing more than 95 per cent of the cases, do not have sufficient grounds to be accorded refugee status, they were thus rejected, Ndayishimiye told reporters. Therefore, Burundi will soon organise the return of these Rwandan nationals to their country in dignity and security, he added.
Since last year, thousands of Rwandans have fled to Burundi after grassroots courts known as gacaca began hearings in the trials of suspects in the countrys 1994 massacre that claimed some 800,000 lives. According to the UN refugee agency, up to 20,000 of them, many from the majority Hutu tribe, have fled to Burundi.
Ndayishimiye said that the rejection of the asylum applications was not political. It is not for political reasons that there are few people eligible, he said. This work has been carried out by a joint government and UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) technical committee ... there was no pressure.
Last month, Rwandan military chief James Kabarebe said that the refugees were being manipulated by Rwandan rebels operating from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and accused of participating in the 1994 genocide. 
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