The refugee leaders were unmoved by the argument, Mr. Moumtzis said, that international organizations could not afford to give continuous financial support to them.

The project has angered many refugee leaders in California, some of whom contend the Government's "planned secondary resettlement" program smacks of racism.

One refugee leader described the 1995 slaughter of his classmates at the national university in Bujumbura, another the hunting down of Hutu in his hometown, Gitega.

By trekking in the opposite direction, the refugee leaders have apparently decided to reject attempts to force them home, United Nations officials said.

The influx broke a two-year impasse between United Nations officials, who had been urging repatriation, and the refugee leaders in Zaire, who had fiercely resisted it.

The next morning, after Jaguar Paw wakes from a nightmare involving the refugee leader, he sees warriors entering the village and setting the huts on fire.

Next up are Jaguar Paw and the refugee leader from the beginning.

Although they almost make it, the refugee leader is shot through the head with an arrow.

About 30,000 have returned to Guatemala as part of an agreement negotiated between the Guatemalan Government and refugee leaders in late 1992, leaving 30,000 still in Mexico.

Both Kaunian refugee leaders spoke several pungent phrases of a sort Hajjaj's language master had never taught him.