THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407230212
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT A. RANKIN, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
President Clinton ordered ``an immediate and massive increase'' Friday in America's humanitarian relief efforts for the millions of starving, cholera-stricken refugees from Rwanda.
Clinton directed the Pentagon to mount a round-the-clock airlift of supplies to the refugees, to take over management of African airports needed to distribute the supplies and to establish a safe water system for the refugees, estimated to number up to 4 million and growing by 2,000 every hour.
The U.S. military mission will cost at least another $100 million in addition to the $150 million in humanitarian aid already committed, said Anthony Lake, national security adviser to the president.
The initial $150 million was roughly 40 percent of total global aid to Rwanda's refugees so far, making America's share by far the largest, Lake said.
Up to 1,500 U.S. soldiers will be working on the mission within a week or so, and ultimately ``several thousand'' could be needed, Deputy Secretary of Defense John Deutch said.
Although Lake stressed that the U.S. military will be used solely in service to the humanitarian relief mission being organized through the United Nations - and not part of a related U.N. peacekeeping mission in Rwanda - they nevertheless will be potentially in danger.
``Whenever you have such tragic conditions ongoing, there's always tension, there's always the possibility of violence breaking out, intentional or unintentional, so I think it would be wrong to assume that it is without any danger,'' said Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Clinton's new orders - delivered in response to an appeal from the U.N. high commissioner for refugees - specifically require the U.S. military to:
Establish and manage an airlift hub at Entebbe, Uganda, which will be used as a staging area for round-the-clock relief shipments to refugee camps. Consultations with Uganda's government are under way.
Expand airlift operations at smaller airfields closer to refugee camps in Goma and Bukavu in Zaire.
Increase the capacity at those three airfields, and potentially others, to receive, transfer and distribute food, medicine and other supplies.
Establish a safe water supply and distribute water.
Expanding the airfields' capacity involves installing lights, radar, communications gear, air traffic control, mess halls, fuel operations and a variety of forklift trucks to unload the planes, Deutch said.
Clinton also said that about 20 million U.S. oral rehydration therapy packages were to be delivered Friday and today. The packages, which replenish body salts lost during severe bouts of cholera and diarrhea, can save a critically ill person within three hours, Atwood said.
As of Friday morning there were 1,300 cholera cases among the 1.2 million refugees at the Goma camp, according to UNICEF, Atwood said. Of 800 deaths there so far, 130 were attributed to cholera and the rest to dehydration and related diseases, he said.
But the European medical relief agency Doctors Without Borders reportedly predicts up to 50,000 cholera cases in the refugee camps, and warns that as many as half that number could die from the disease. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Reuters
An elderly man, weak from cholera, lies in a camp...
Color photo by Associated Press
Rwandan refugee children...
Maps of supply route
Chart
Foreign aid for Rwanda's refugees
by CNB