Citation
PARIS, April 9 (Reuter) - France spearheaded an international effort to
rescue foreigners from war-torn Rwanda on Saturday, flying in hundreds
of soldiers to the capital Kigali where ethnic fighting flared anew.
A contingent of 280 French paratroopers aboard five Transall C-160
transport planes landed at dawn in the capital, securing control of the
airport with Rwandan armed forces, the armed forces chief of staff,
Admiral Jacques Lanxade, said.
Another 120 men were expected to be flown in later in the day from
positions in Central African Republic capital Bangui, he told a news
conference.
The evacuation operation, codenamed Amaryllis
, was hampered by
fighting between Rwandan forces and rebels, and between ethnic
factions, Lanxade said.
The fighting is making it very difficult to circulate in the city,
he
said. In addition, the city is experiencing troubles stemming from
fighting between different factions.
In Shanghai, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, accompanying Prime Minister
Edouard Balladur on an official visit to China, said the situation in
Rwanda was serious
.
Witnesses in Kigali said three convoys of foreigners left the capital
by road and headed towards the relative calm of Rwanda's central
African neighbour, Burundi.
They said French forces did not control the airport, as previously
believed, and the situation in Kigali was chaotic and dangerous. An
air evacuation is out of the question,
one Western diplomat said.
Philippe Gaillard, head of the International Red Cross in Rwanda, said
the number of victims who died in fighting in Kigali in the past days
probably ran into thousands.
The violence erupted after Rwanda's President Juvenal Habyarimana and
President Cyprien Ntaryamira of neighbouring Burundi were killed on
Wednesday when a rocket destroyed their plane as they were landing in
Kigali from a meeting in Tanzania.
Lanxade said a French priest was killed in northern Rwanda on Wednesday
and two French government workers were believed to have been killed in
Kigali. A third worker was missing.
Fighting resumed in Kigali on Saturday after a brief lull following a
ceasefire agreement.
Alain Bourin, leader of the French expatriate community in Kigali, said
fighting was less intense on Saturday than over the previous two days
but foreigners were barricaded in their homes.
There is much less shooting but it (ceasefire) is far from being
respected,
he told France-Info radio. We still hear mortar fire and
automatic weapons in the streets.
French government workers whose presence was not vital would be taken
out but there was no general evacuation order for the entire 600-odd
French community in Rwanda, Lanxade said.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said French nationals who wanted to
leave Rwanda would be given the chance to do so.
If the situation remains as bad as it is, the decision to repatriate
everyone will be taken,
Bourin said. If the situation improves, I
think we'll not be repatriated.
Bourin said French nationals had been told to prepare one suitcase per
couple weighing no more than 30 kg (66 lbs).
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it planned to send
two planes carrying 33 tonnes of medical aid and two teams of doctors
to Kigali to care for dozens of people in urgent need of surgery.
The French troops and planes came from the Central African Republic
capital Bangui, where Paris normally has 1,300 soldiers, five Jaguar
fighter-bombers and three Transall C-160 transport planes.
Its Bangui forces were reinforced by troops and materiel sent from
elsewhere in Africa, where France has a total of 8,600 soldiers.
France, which for several years had about 300 soldiers in Rwanda,
withdrew its remaining contingent last December. They were replaced by
United Nations troops. France still has a small number of military
technical advisers in Rwanda and Burundi.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
