Zaire Sets Deadline For Refugees’ Ouster

Frustrated by the United Nations’ inability to get more than 1.2 million Rwandan refugees to go home, Zaire said Tuesday they’ll be forced to leave if they don’t go voluntarily by the end of the year.

The U.N. refugee agency dismissed the deadline.

The policy was announced by Prime Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo after meeting for several hours with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata.

Zairean soldiers began expelling refugees at gunpoint on Aug. 19, causing some 173,000 refugees to flee into hills and forests around the camps, without food or water.