Nairobi, Monday,

RWANDAN rebels declared victory today over the Hutu Government as

nearly two million Hutu refugees were reported to be fleeing their

tortured country for neighbouring Zaire.

Up to one million refugees have flooded the Zairean border town of

Goma and although transport planes today flew in more supplies, aid

agencies said they could not cope and many might die.

To add to the humanitarian catastrophe, a second crisis was unfolding

in south-west Rwanda inside the French-declared protection zone for

refugees.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said up to 100,000

Rwandans had fled across the zone into the Zairean border town of

Bukavu, about 65 miles south of Goma.

''It happened so suddenly and nobody is ready. The barriers are open

and nobody can stop them,'' said ICRC delegate Marianne Coradazzi.

Panic spread in the Rwandan border town of Cyangugu at dawn with

crowds looting food warehouses. Shots could be heard across the border

as soldiers tried to restore order and the situation calmed later in the

day, said Coradazzi.

The Hutu refugees are short of food and terrified that France's

Operation Turquoise will pull out of Rwanda, clearing the way for the

victorious RPF, who are mostly Tutsis, to march in.

''We're worried about the end of the French mandate on August 22. When

the French pull out it's possible we'll have millions in Bukavu,'' said

a Medecins Sans Frontieres spokeswoman.

In the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the rebels said they had swept away

the last Hutu Government resistance.

''We have captured all of Rwanda up to the French protection zone and

a ceasefire is effectively in place,'' said rebel commander General Paul

Kagame.

He said he hoped the end of the fighting would halt the desperate

human flight out of Rwanda. ''There is no need for anyone to flee

Rwanda. We guarantee all Rwandans stability and security.''

The RPF named a Hutu, Pasteur Bizimungu, as the new President of

Rwanda and confirmed that Hutu moderate Faustin Twagiramungu would be

Prime Minister.

Kagame said his men were under orders not to harm civilians, but

warned that a fight was brewing with French troops protecting an area

where Hutu Government leaders were hiding.

The rebels want the French to arrest the leaders of the Hutu

Government. The French say their troops have a UN mandate to carry out a

humanitarian mission, and arresting Government leaders is not part of

that mandate.

Aid agencies estimate that troops and militia, helped by civilians,

killed as many as 500,000 Tutsis and Hutu opponents of the Government

since April 6, when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was

assassinated.

Government forces have been routed and thousands of troops have fled

with the refugees into Goma, bringing large quantities of arms that

Zairean authorities are trying to confiscate.

Several mortar bombs, believed by UN officials to have come from RPF

lines, hit the area of Goma airport where French forces are based,

shutting down the international airlift.

However flights resumed around today and at least four transport

planes flew in.

Goma's ICRC representative, Johanna Grombach, said the immediate

problem was delivering the food to so many people and without triggering

riots.

Tonight Oxfam called for an urgent relief operation on the scale of

the 1940s Berlin airlift to prevent a humanitarian disaster ''on a scale

not witnessed in modern times''.

''The lives of one million people hang in the balance. To keep them

alive the international community has to launch a Berlin-style

airlift,'' said Emergencies Director Marcus Thompson.

''Thousands will quickly die of hunger and related diseases if the

United States, Britain, European Union, and Russia do not rise to this

challenge.''

In Washington, President Clinton authorised a further #12.6m in aid

and the use of US transport planes for relief supplies.--Reuter/AP.