The Rwandan President has asked Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to encourage the Tutsi refugees to stay, by granting them citizenship.

In the course of the ceremonies, the Rwandan President publicly accused France of not having apologised for its role in Rwanda while desiring to participate in the ceremonies.

Machetes are the common weapon in massacres that began with the April 6 death of the Rwandan President in a still-mysterious air crash.

Diplomats say the Burundians widely believed that the assassination was aimed at the Rwandan President, not theirs.

Fighting broke out last Wednesday after the Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed in a suspicious plane explosion here that also took the life of Burundi's President, Cyprien Ntaryamira.

The country descended into war and ethnic massacres on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying the Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down by unknown forces as it approached the capital, Kigali.

In addition, Mr. Habyarimana, the Rwandan President, signed a peace accord in August with Tutsi rebels to end a three-year-old civil war.

The plane carrying the Rwandan President crashed on the evening of April 6.

The massacres in Rwanda that claimed up to 500,000 lives followed a suspicious air crash in April in which the Rwandan President, a Hutu, was killed.

Juvénal Habyarimana, the Rwandan President.