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DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 31 (AFP) - Delegates at the protracted Rwandan peace talks between the government and rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) went into private consultations Sunday after failure last week to make progress, sources at the talks said.
The latest round of negotiations focusing on how to integrate RPF forces into the national army and the repatriation refugees got bogged down soon after opening on Friday after RPF demanded that the government declare an end to the violence.
Some 80 people were killed after supporters of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana launched a violent campaign aimed at wrecking a power-sharing agreement the government signed with the rebels earlier this month.
RPF's commissioner for international co-operation Patrick Mazumuhaka, contacted by telephone in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha where the talks are being held, said 155 people were massacred by youths loyal to Habyarimana's National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRNDD) party.
The Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR) and Habyarimana's body guards also took part in the massacre, Muzumuhaka claimed.
The violence was mainly directed at members of the Tutsi tribe from which RPF draws its supporters and other people thought to be opposition sympathizers.
Ami Mpungwe, the director for African affairs in the Tanzanian foreign ministry told AFP that both parties had agreement to go for private consultations before resuming negotiations probably on Monday.
He indicated that the talks might be adjourned if the two sides failed to reach agreement soon.
The mainly Tutsi RPF invaded their country in October 1990 in an attempt to topple Habyarimana's 19-year-old regime.
hb/jnm/fc AFP AFP SEQN-0242
