Citation
MADRID, April 12 (Reuter) - Three Spanish nuns, trapped in a hospital
in the Rwandan city of Kibuye with a group of terrified refugees, said
on Tuesday Hutu tribesmen had entered the hospital but had not harmed
anyone.
It seems like a miracle,
one of them, Sister Pilar Espelosin, 63,
told Spanish national radio by telephone.
But we do not trust them. They say that tomorrow they are going to
send another group, stronger and more dangerous and that they will make
us show them the building,
said the nun who has maintained regular
contact with Spanish radio stations.
Members of the minority Tutsi tribe took refuge in the hospital,
fleeing Hutu tribesmen as Rwanda sinks into civil strife. Hutus entered
the hospital on Tuesday and took money but did not harm anyone.
Espelosin, a member of the Missionary Sisters of Jesus, Mary and
Joseph, said one of the nuns had to stay with the refugees at all
times, because if we all left, they would die of fear
.
She said there was no hope of evacuating the refugees because they
would be killed as soon as they left the hospital.
The only thing we can do, is ease their agony, because you can imagine
that knowing they are being hunted and why they are being hunted, their
agony is horrific, their fear is horrific,
she told Efe-radio in an
earlier interview.
On Monday, Espelosin told El Pais newspaper the hospital was surrounded
and the nurses had been killed.
Hundreds (of attackers) have come down from the hills with machetes,
sticks, spears and arrows. They are killing women, children, men and
the elderly.
Espelosin, who has spent 22 years in Rwanda, said the nuns would not
leave while there were people to care for. Apparently it doesn't show
but inside I am scared to death,
she added.
A spokeswoman for the Missionary Sisters in Madrid, said the
organisation had been unable to make contact with the sisters.
Foreign Affairs Minister Javier Solana said the government would do all
possible to help the 135 Spaniards still in Rwanda but it did not plan
to send a special aircraft to evacuate them.
We are in contact with Belgium, France and the United Nations and the
Spanish ambassadors of the surrounding countries are at the borders to
help both the Spanish and non-Spanish who are leaving,
he told
reporters in Madrid.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
