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.
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