Other refugees, interviewed separately, said guerrillas had invited Hutu civilians to a reconciliation meeting at a school, where they were killed.

For weeks, Tutsi-led army and militia units have been attacking Hutu civilians, killing scores, even hundreds at a time.

But Hutu civilians justifiably distrust a Tutsi-led military that seems beyond government control.

In response, the Tutsi army has also committed atrocities, killing scores of Hutu civilians, diplomats and human-rights groups say.

The army would respond with killings of Hutu civilians, in the name of rooting out rebels.

Led by soldiers, Hutu civilians and the Interahamwe attacked and killed hundreds of Tutsi.

The predominantly Tutsi army has struck back, waging counterinsurgency campaigns in which some Hutu civilians have been killed, human rights officials said.

The army has responded with massacres against Hutu civilians.

Human-rights monitors estimate that thousands of unarmed Hutu civilians have been killed by those soldiers during counterinsurgency campaigns in the northwest this year.

Tens of thousands of Hutu civilians fled the country during the violence into their northern neighbor: Rwanda.