Citation
BRUSSELS, April 8 (Reuter) - The Belgian government held emergency
talks late on Thursday night about the possible evacuation of Belgian
nationals from Rwanda after at least 11 Belgian U.N. peacekeepers were
shot dead in an orgy of violence.
The meeting began before a U.N. spokesman in the Rwandan capital Kigali
announced that the Belgian troops were killed after being disarmed by
members of the Rwandan presidential guard in Rwanda's capital Kigali.
Arriving for the meeting, which was attended by top military officers,
Defence Minister Leo Delcroix answered that cannot be ruled out
when
asked by state television BRT whether there could be an evacuation.
Belgium, the former colonial power in both countries, has about 1,500
civilian nationals in Rwanda and 1,200 in Burundi.
The killing of presidents Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien
Ntaryamira of Burundi in a rocket attack on their aircraft over Kigali
on Wednesday sparked an orgy of bloodshed in Rwanda.
Thirteen Belgians were sent last night to investigate the crash at the
airport. Elements of the presidential guard stopped them and asked for
them to hand over their arms,
the U.N. spokesman in Kigali, Mukhtar
Gueye, told Reuters.
They cooperated and did so and were then detained. We have now
recovered 11 bodies. Two are still unaccounted for. They were dead from
bullet wounds. You can call it an execution.
The troops were part of the 2,500-strong, 20-nation U.N. Assistance
Mission in Rwanda.
Delcroix said the situation in Rwanda was still confused and the
problem at the moment was the airport, an apparent reference to Kigali.
Foreign Affairs Minister Willy Claes, interviewed by BRT on a visit to
Romania, said an aircraft of the Belgian airline Sabena was on standby
in the Burundian capital Bujumbura for use in evacuations if the
situation got worse.
There was also a C-130 transport plane available in Kenya, and fleets
of cars could be called on to take people to safety by road.
Belgium expressed outrage at the deaths of the presidents.
Claes told Belgian news agency Belga he would appeal to the United
Nations later on Thursday to strengthen its mandate in Rwanda as a
precautionary measure so that the situation does not become out of
control in Rwanda
.
The ministry said in a statement: We learned with astonishment of the
brutal attack against an aircraft over Kigali which cost the lives of
the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda. We strongly condemn this loss
which could seriously put into question the precarious balance in the
two countries.
There are about 450 Belgian troops in Rwanda as part of a team of 2,500
U.N. peacekeepers overseeing the central African country's transition
to democracy.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
