Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 24, 1994 TAG: 9404240015
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NAIROBI, KENYA LENGTH: Medium
The rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front issued a statement saying the cease-fire would begin at midnight Monday, said a Tanzanian foreign ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said the cease-fire was conditional on the government stopping all killings in areas under its control within four days. The official spoke by phone from the northern Tanzania town of Arusha, where talks were to begin late Saturday.
Abdul Kabia, a U.N. spokesman in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, said he had been informed of the cease-fire by a Rwandan diplomat and was awaiting written confirmation. Kabia, speaking by telephone, said no gunfire was reported in Kigali all day Saturday but he declined to "draw any conclusions from that, as things here change very quickly."
An estimated 100,000 people have been killed in two weeks of bloodletting between the majority Hutus, who dominate the government and the military, and the minority Tutsis, who form the bulk of the rebel force.
As many as 2 million people have fled their homes and thousands more are barricaded in buildings to escape the violence, which began a day after the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi died in a mysterious plane crash in Kigali April 6.
In Brussels, Belgian radio quoted a rebel official as saying the decision to declare a cease-fire was taken in response to international pressure.
"The cease-fire should allow humanitarian aid to reach the tens of thousands of victims of the Rwandan conflict," the radio quoted the official as saying.
by CNB