Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 19, 1994 TAG: 9404190160
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NAIROBI, KENYA LENGTH: Medium
``The situation is catastrophic, not just in Kigali [the capital] but in the rest of Rwanda,'' said Jean-Luc Thevoz, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
He reported ``tens and tens of thousands of dead'' and said at least 400,000 of Rwanda's 8.5 million people had been driven from their homes in the outbreak of fighting that started after Rwanda's president died in a suspicious plane crash April 6.
The massacres began in the capital the next day, and two days later rebels began an offensive into Kigali.
The rebels, mostly members of the minority Tutsi tribe, had been in a demilitarized zone in the north since last year but have now moved to take much of the capital. They say they'll continue to fight until the Hutu-dominated government stops gangs from killing Tutsis in areas it controls.
A Ghanaian peacekeeper was shot in cross fire near Kigali airport Sunday and was evacuated with serious leg wounds, said Abdul Kabia, executive director of the U.N. force in Rwanda.
Rebels blew up a government radio station in Kigali that had incited Hutus to slaughter Tutsis, Kabia said.
An official of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front met Sunday in Kampala, Uganda, with Rwanda's ambassador. The two sides agreed on the need for a cease-fire, but didn't sign one.
``My impression is that the fighting is dying down in the capital,'' said Moctar Gueye, U.N. spokesman in Kigali. ``Unfortunately, we have no cease-fire agreement for the time being.''
About 26,000 Rwandans have fled to Zaire, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, according to the CARE aid agency, while hundreds of thousands are displaced within Rwanda.
About 6,000 Rwandans were camped Monday on the Ugandan side of the mountainous border, and hundreds more - mostly women, children and old people - stream across from Rwanda every day, said relief officials in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
by CNB