Citation
BRUSSELS, April 8 (Reuter) - Belgium on Friday prepared to evacuate
foreigners trapped by savage fighting in its former African colony of
Rwanda, after 10 Belgian U.N. soldiers were killed trying in vain to
protect the country's prime minister.
Government sources told Reuters an emergency cabinet meeting would be
held later on Friday to decide what to do about the eruption of
violence in the capital Kigali. Rwanda has suffered from a sporadic
civil war along tribal lines for four years.
One option would be to evacuate some 1,500 Belgians living in Rwanda
and possibly other foreigners by sending crack paratroopers who have
often been dispatched to Belgium's troubled former colonies in Africa,
including Zaire.
Belgian radio said paratroop units in Belgium had been placed on alert
but there was no immediate confirmation.
A government statement issued after a late night cabinet meeting on
Thursday said ministers had analysed the present dramatic situation in
Rwanda, particularly with a view to taking appropriate measures for the
protection of our compatriots.
Defence Minister Leo Delcroix, speaking on Thursday before the news of
the death of the Belgian soldiers, said evacuation could not be ruled
out. The government contacted the United Nations to see what action
could be taken.
Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene had cut short a holiday in
Malta to return to Brussels and Foreign Minister Willy Claes was also
on his way back from a visit to Romania.
Government sources said it was likely Belgium would turn to other
allies, including France, for help with any evacuation. Extra troops
would have to be sent because the U.N. force in Rwanda had no mandate
to protect or evacuate foreign nationals.
The Belgian armed forces said in a statement the 10 soldiers, part of a
2,500-strong U.N. mission in the country, were disarmed and executed by
Rwandan troops at a military camp in Kigali on Thursday.
These Belgian soldiers were in charge of the security of the Prime
Minister Agathe Unilingyimana, whose residence was surrounded by
Rwandan soldiers,
it said.
She tried to flee. Our soldiers were apprehended while they were
covering her flight,
the statement said.
The prime minister was also killed by soldiers.
The commander of the Belgian peacekeepers in Rwanda, Colonel Luc
Marchal, said it would be wrong for U.N. forces to intervene and that
the country had to resolve its own problems.
He told Belgian radio the bodies of the dead soldiers were in a Kigali
hospital and that they would be flown home to Belgium.
Violence swept Kigali following the deaths of presidents Juvenal
Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi in a rocket
attack on their plane as it flew into the city on Wednesday night. It
is not clear who was responsible.
Belgium has about 1,500 civilian nationals in Rwanda, which became
independent in 1962, with around 900 living in Kigali. Another 1,200
Belgians live in Burundi, another former colony.
The U.N. Security Council denounced the violence in Rwanda on Thursday
and called on security forces and the military to stop fighting and
restore order.
U.N. Security Council President Colin Keating, New Zealand's
ambassador, said the airport in Kigali was still under the control of
Rwanda's presidential guard, responsible for much of the turmoil. He
said he had reason to believe other U.N. peacekeepers were being held
captive there.
Claes said an aircraft belonging to the Belgian national carrier Sabena
was on standby in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura for use in
evacuations if the situation worsened.
There was also a C-130 transport plane available in Kenya, and fleets
of cars could be called on for an evacuation by road.
Belgium expressed outrage at the deaths of the two presidents and
warned that the killings could destabilise both countries, bedevilled
by violent tribal rivalries for decades.
U.N. officials fear that violence between Rwanda's Hutu majority and
Tutsi minority tribes could spread beyond the capital, scene of the
worst fighting since the civil war began.
Youths wielding machetes, knives and clubs stalked Kigali, settling
tribal scores by hacking and clubbing people to death or simply
shooting them, witnesses said.
Hatred between the Hutu and the Tutsi, their former feudal overlords,
predates Rwandan and Burundi independence. Tens of thousands of Tutsi
and Hutu have died in ethnic slaughter in both countries over the
years.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
