Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 25, 1994 TAG: 9407250096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GOMA, ZAIRE LENGTH: Long
The first wave of an extensive U.S. food aid airlift arrived Sunday, but relief workers say it will be many days before the influx of aid can defeat the disease, hunger and exhaustion that have killed as many as 10,000 refugees in the past five days.
``Everybody is dying here,'' said farmer Jean de Dieu Kadogo as he led a small boy across the border. ``We'd rather go home.''
Cholera, which is spread by feces and can kill in a matter of hours, is moving rapidly through the area. Other diseases and malnutrition have swept through camps polluted by corpses, excrement and smoke from cooking fires.
Hundreds of refugees had massed at the Rwandan border, hoping to return home after days in the fetid camps. But Zairian troops stopped them for two days, apparently until the border area could be cleared of abandoned weapons.
Zairian Prime Minister Kengo wa Dondo reopened the border and lead a procession of 20 carloads of officials and red-bereted soldiers to cheers and yells from the waiting refugees.
At least 2,000 streamed over in the first hour, then the flow slowed to a few people every five or 10 minutes. There was no indication that most of the 1 million refugees in the Goma area were preparing to leave.
The refugees are mostly members of the Hutu ethnic group who fled as rebels led by the Tutsi ethnic group advanced westward. They feared the rebels would retaliate for massacres of Tutsis by Hutu militias.
Between the massacres and the casualties in the war between the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front and the former government, an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 Rwandans have died since the slaughter began in early April.
The rebels defeated the government army last week and are urging the refugees to return home.
Rwanda's new prime minister indicated Sunday there are splits within the government that could undermine efforts to convince refugees that it is safe to come home.
Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu, objecting to comments by the president that elections would not be called for at least five years, warned that Rwanda risked falling into a dictatorship.
``We have to get to elections. And if I win, don't kill me, please. Don't take your guns or machetes and kill me or cut my head off,'' Twagiramungu said in an interview.
U.N. officials say there have been no reports of rebels abusing civilians and the new government says it will punish only those found guilty of perpetrating the massacres.
But the refugees are deeply suspicious. ``Have you heard anything, are you sure they're not killing Hutus here?'' said Janvier Nkurikiyimfura, who walked across the border carrying his mattress.
He walked along a road on the shore of Lake Kivu, looking at corpses rotting in the water, then reached the city of Gisenyi - deserted, looted by soldiers in their last stand, and reeking of death.
Amid the suspicion and horror, there were moments of hope for the traumatized country.
A camouflage-clad soldier of the deposed Rwandan government walked up to the border and asked if he, too, was welcome.
``I told him all our new government wants is unity, that's our policy,'' said Commander John Murangwa after he gave the man a hug, and let him in.
Hopes also rose for the refugees as the first planes of the U.S. airlift droned over Goma with their cargoes of food. But countless hearts sank minutes later when the planes dropped about half their loads about a half-mile off target, leaving some 10 tons of flour, powdered milk and corned beef spilled in the mud.
President Clinton on Friday authorized more than $100 million for airlifts of medicine, food and water, bringing total U.S. aid for the Rwandan crisis to $250 million since April.
Other logistical problems plagued relief efforts. The Oxfam agency flew in a water-purification plant for use at one of the camps, but no trucks were available to transport it.
And some relief agency officials were critical of the airlift, saying that food was less crucial than sanitation and water aid. Officials say tens of thousands of latrines are needed for the camps in order to control cholera, but no country has offered to supply or install them. KATALE, Zaire (AP) - A U.S. aid airdrop criticized beforehand as a publicity stunt missed the target by a half-mile Sunday,scattering bundles over terrified Rwandan refugees who thought they were being bombed.
``I can't believe it,'' said British aid worker John Wallis, as he slashed at wrappings with a bowie knife, and flour spilled into a muddy cornfield. ``This is criminal. I'm speechless.''
Three C-130s dropped about 10 tons of corned beef and other food, half of the 20 tons they carried to the drop zone. One bundle narrowly missed a U.N. helicopter, and another almost hit a school. Others fell deep among banana trees, and workers said they expected to salvage only about half of it.
Because of the drop, U.N. and volunteer officials said, trucks needed for getting food and supplies to the more than 1 million refugees around Goma were held up much of the day.
Trucks with a total capacity of 40 tons - twice the airdrop amount - drove the 30 miles from Goma to the Katale camp empty because aid workers did not get enough advance notice to load them.
Oxfam, a British relief agency, rushed in a water purification plant for the Katale camp, already rife with cholera, but no trucks were available to carry it from the Goma airport.
Then the airdrop was 90 minutes late, holding up the trucks even longer. And in the end, the aid delivered amounted only to about 3 percent of the camp's daily need, equal to two truck loads.
``It was not the smoothest of starts for the American operation,'' said Ray Wilkenson of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
by CNB