Thousands of Rwandans have fled to neighbouring Uganda and Burundi for fear of being indicted by traditional village courts trying Hutus suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide, a minister said yesterday.

Up to 2,000 people have fled to Burundi and another 1,200 crossed into Uganda since the beginning of April fearing unfair treatment in so-called ?gacaca? tribunals, Local Government Minister Protais Musoni told Reuters.

?We have reports of people fleeing in big numbers,? he said. ?We raised these issues with the governments of Burundi and Uganda and we are working out arrangements to have them return.?

Gacaca courts were set up to deal with a backlog of suspects awaiting trial in conventional courts on charges of involvement in the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates. More than 80,000 genocide suspects are languishing in prison on remand.

Gacaca dispenses with the formalities of a normal court. The Rwandan government says up to 1 million people could end up being tried in the gacaca courts.

Musoni added without elaborating ?elements? were entering mainly from Uganda and Burundi to mobilise people to flee and join a variety of exiled Rwandan rebel groups.

?We have information of some elements trickling in and out and mobilising these people?, said Musoni. Pressed to comment on whether these people are being recruited into rebel ranks, Musoni said, ?I wouldn?t rule that out ? I am already getting that information.?

The majority of those fleeing are fugitives of justice, running away from the gacaca courts which have been rolled out across sections of the tiny central African nation, he said.

In March gacaca began its most ambitious phase when investigative hearings were launched in 8,262 courts. Any trials resulting from these hearings will likely start next year.

<B>Arthur ASIIMWE</B>