
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 8, 1994                   TAG: 9404080075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NAIROBI, KENYA                                LENGTH: Medium

CHAOS REIGNS IN RWANDA

Rampaging troops reportedly killed Rwanda's acting premier and as many as 11 U.N. soldiers Thursday during fierce fighting touched off by the deaths of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi in a suspicious plane crash.

Reports from Rwanda's capital, Kigali, were sketchy and it was not clear who was involved in the clashes or who was in control of the capital. Amid the violence, three Cabinet ministers were reported abducted and 17 Jesuit Rwandan priests were reported killed.

The capital in neighboring Burundi was reported quiet.

Intense gunfire and explosions echoed across Kigali, U.N. spokesman Moctar Gueye reported by telephone early in the day. He said that there were reports of house-to-house killings and that the city's streets were empty except for small groups of youths armed with machetes and clubs.

"So far as we can see, it seems that there are a lot of guns in a lot of hands and we don't really know who is giving orders to shoot at who and for what reason," Gueye said.

Kigali "just fell apart," with widespread gunfire and looting on Thursday, Canadian Maj. Brent Beardsley, a U.N. peacekeeper there, was quoted as saying by Canadian Press. He said U.N. peacekeepers had been shot at twice and returned fire.

There were conflicting reports on the casualties among the 2,500 U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African country.

Gueye said 11 Belgian U.N. soldiers were found killed Thursday after they were kidnapped Wednesday by elements of the presidential guard. The 11 were trying to make their way to the site of the plane crash to try to determine its cause, he said.

In New York, U.N. spokesman Joe Sills said earlier that three Belgian U.N. soldiers were reported slain in the capital. They apparently were abducted by members of Rwanda's presidential guard along with three Cabinet ministers. There were unconfirmed reports of other U.N. personnel missing, Sills said.

The violence broke out after President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and President Cyprian Ntaryamira of Burundi died late Wednesday when their plane crashed while landing at Kigali's airport.

In Washington, President Clinton said Rwanda's acting prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyamana, "was sought out and murdered" by Rwandan security forces. He also expressed shock at the deaths of the presidents.

by CNB