Hutu militiamen kill 35 civilians in Rwanda

Hutu militiamen killed 35 people on Monday night in two separate attacks in Rwanda, the Rwandan news agency RNA said on Tuesday evening, quoting military sources in the central Gitarama region.

A military commander said 18 people were killed in an attack at the settlement of Bwiza, in western Rwanda's Kibuye Prefecture.

The victims were Tutsi returnees.

About 300 militiamen armed with guns, grenades, and traditional weapons took part in the attack, the commander said.

The army drove them off, killing three.

He said armed criminals also attacked the home of a local protestant pastor in Nyakabanda Commune, north of central Gitarama town, killing 17 people, including the pastor's family, household employees and three students from a nearby secondary school.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.