Citation
PARIS, April 8 (Reuter) - France said on Friday that several Rwandan
government ministers and leading figures, as well as Belgian, Ghanaian
and Bangladeshi U.N. peacekeepers, have been killed in ethnic violence
in the central African country.
The Foreign Ministry declined to identify the victims, who were in
addition to President Juvenal Habyarimana and Prime Minister Agathe
Uwilingiyimana.
We are dismayed by the assassinations, that of the prime minister,
those of ministers and of several leading figures,
Foreign Ministry
spokesman Richard Duque told reporters at a regular briefing.
France pays tribute to the work of U.N. peacekeepers, some of whom --
Belgian, Ghanaian and Bangladeshi -- have paid with their lives serving
peace in Rwanda,
Duque said.
It appeared to be the first official indication that ministers other
than Uwilingiyimana and U.N. peacekeepers other than Belgians had been
killed. Ten Belgian soldiers were killed trying in vain to protect the
prime minister.
On Thursday a United Nations spokesman in Kigali said members of the
presidential guard abducted Information Minister Faustin Rucogoza,
Labour and Social Affairs Minister Landuard Ndasingwa and Agriculture
Minister Frederic Nzamurambaho. The ministers' families and three U.N.
military observers guarding them were also seized.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
