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

DATE: SATURDAY, April 23, 1994                   TAG: 9404250162
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NAIROBI, KENYA                                LENGTH: Medium

RWANDA PULLOUT CRITICIZED

Private aid groups reacted bitterly Friday to the U.N. decision to pull nearly all of its peacekeepers out of Rwanda, saying the retreat is sure to cause even worse suffering.

The Organization of African Unity, meanwhile, said the decision could be taken as ``a sign of indifference or lack of sufficient concern'' for Africans.

``We are appalled at the hypocrisy of the international community,'' said Abiy Hailu of Christian Aid, a London charity. ``They have pledged humanitarian assistance to the victims of the fighting in Rwanda and then taken a step which ensures that none of this emergency aid will reach those who need it.''

Hailu and others strongly criticized the unanimous decision by the U.N. Security Council late Thursday to cut the number of peacekeepers in the Central African nation from 1,700 to 270, one-tenth of the force's former size of 2,500.

The decision came after repeated failures by the U.N. force to mediate a halt to ethnic fighting and massacres that may have killed 100,000 people and sent hundreds of thousands more fleeing for their lives the past two weeks.

``We are outraged at this shortsighted, callous decision,'' said David Bryer, a director of Oxfam, a British-Irish humanitarian agency.

He said the withdrawal of the U.N. troops from Rwanda's capital, Kigali, would rob thousands of civilians of what little security they have from the bloodletting between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.

``It was bitterly ironic that the Rwanda decision was made on the same day that the Security Council voted to do much more to try to protect the citizens of Goradze'' from attacks by Bosnian Serb forces, Bryer said.

In New York, U.N. spokesman Joe Sills said about 1,000 of the peacekeepers were to fly out today.

Officials of private and U.N. aid agencies met in Nairobi on Friday to decide how - and if - they could get relief supplies into Rwanda without protection.

by CNB