THOUSANDS OF RWANDANS HIDING, REBELS OPPOSE INTERVENTION WITH PM-US-RWANDA
PAULINE JELINEK, Associated PressNAIROBI, KENYA NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) _ Relief workers kept trying today to reach thousands of hungry, terrified people hiding throughout Rwanda. And international efforts were under way to try to bring an end to the bloodbath.
But the rebels said today they oppose any intervention in the Central African country.
''If the mission of such a force is to stop the genocide, it is too late,'' said Jacques Bihozagara of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front.
More than 100,000 Rwandans have been killed in nearly a month of ethnic savagery. An estimated 1.3 million have been displaced and about 250,000 refugees have fled to Tanzania.
Militiamen killed 21 orphans at a school in Butare on Sunday, along with 13 Rwandan Red Cross workers who tried to protect them, the International Committee of the Red Cross said today.
The Belgian Red Cross quoted one of its officials in Butare, Pascal Dufour, as saying the children - between the ages of 3 and 12 - were ''selected on an ethnic basis'' from a group of about 500 orphans evacuated from Kigali, the Rwandan capital about 50 miles to the north.
The government and army are led by Hutus, the majority ethnic group in Rwanda, while the rebels are mostly Tutsis. The militias are mainly Hutu, and the implication is that the slain orphans were Tutsis, as have been virtually all victims of the massacres.
Bihozagara said an international force would serve to prevent the rebels from advancing against government forces, whom he blamed for the massacres.
''It would protect the killers,'' he told reporters in Brussels, Belgium.
The rebels will reject appeals for a cease-fire until army units and militias they hold responsible for the massacres are ''dissolved and disarmed,'' said Bihozagara.
The United Nations reported heavy shelling today in Kigali, where civilian gangs and militias still control much of downtown.
U.N. spokesman Abdul Kabia, speaking by telephone from Kigali, said there are reports the massacres have diminished in the city but continue in the countryside, particularly southern areas controlled by the army and militias.
Aid teams sent to assess the number of needy have uncovered hundreds of thousands of people throughout Rwanda.
An estimated 250,000 of Kigali's 350,000 residents have fled the city, said Emery Brusset, spokesman for the U.N.'s emergency humanitarian effort in Rwanda.
U.N. officials estimate that some 20,000 people are sheltered in unguarded churches throughout the capital, as well as in the known U.N. safe havens: a stadium, hospital and two hotels.
Some are afraid to tell even the United Nations where they are hiding.
''Parishes around the city are playing the role of refuge for a lot of people, but people will not tell us where they are hiding because they feel threatened,'' Brusset said in Nairobi.
He said delivery of aid under the blue U.N. flag draws attention to the safe havens, drawing possible retribution as well as attacks to steal the food.
Twelve people were killed and 113 wounded Sunday when mortar rounds exploded at a church crowded with refugees.
Kabia, the U.N. spokesman, said military observers hope to evacuate some 300 people staying in a hotel under U.N. protection.
Truck convoys were being readied today in Uganda to take food to an estimated 250,000 displaced in the north, said U.N. World Food Program spokesman Francis Mwanza.
In the south, a team took 17 tons of food under Rwandan army escort and discovered 65,000 people outside the town of Butare, evacuated by relief workers more than a week ago following a massacre of hospital patients.
Meanwhile, U.N. officials went to Tanzania to see if there was any chance for peace talks proposed by the Tanzanian president.
In the United States, the Clinton administration sent a State Department team to the region, including a possible stop in Tanzania, to offer support for African efforts to stop the conflict.
The administration also said Monday it will contribute $15 million to the United Nations humanitarian aid effort.
| Reply via web post | Reply to sender | Reply to group | Start a New Topic | Messages in this topic (1) |
The Voice of the Poor, the Weak and Powerless.
More News:http://africancause.blogspot.co.uk/
-----------------------------------------------------------
Post message: AfricaWatch@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: AfricaWatch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: AfricaWatch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: AfricaWatch-owner@yahoogroups.com
-----------------------------
Comments
Post a Comment