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NAIROBI, April 22 (Reuter) - Rebel reinforcements advanced on
government forces in the beleaguered Rwandan capital of Kigali after
both sides agreed to peace talks and the U.N. considered withdrawing
all but a few hundred of peacekeepers.
United Nations officials in Kigali said Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)
reinforcements were heading for the capital after they were reported to
have captured the town of Rwamagana, about 25 miles (40 km) to the
east.
The officials, speaking by telephone, said they had fresh reports of
massacres of civilians near the southern towns of Butare, Gityrama and
Gikondoro but had no figures for the dead.
Hundreds of thousands of people are feared to have been slaughtered
since the presidents of Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi were killed
when their plane was shot down near Kigali on April 6.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali recommended
on Thursday the Security Council either increase U.N. forces in Rwanda
by several thousand or reduce them to about 270.
Security Council members said privately the force, originally 2,500
strong, would probably be cut to 270 with a provision for an early
review in case a ceasefire was established in the civil war.
In a report to the council, expected to adopt a resolution on Friday,
Boutros-Ghali also gave a third option of completing withdrawing the
U.N. Assistance Mission For Rwanda (UNAMIR) but rejected it outright.
Aid agencies have said a total U.N. withdrawal from Rwanda would put at
risk thousands of displaced people who rely on the U.N. presence to
deter roaming gunmen.
U.N. officers shared the agency concerns and were worried that even if
270 peacekeepers stayed out of the 1,570 now in Rwanda after the
withdrawal earlier this week of some units to avoid being hit by
crossfire and the whole Belgian contingent.
With that number (270), we simply cannot accompany convoys, monitor
any ceasefire or investigate problems as well as take over control of
the airport, as is planned,
an officer said.
A force of 270 would also have a lot of manpower problems if it was
required to stay near places where the refugees are.
But a senior U.N. official in Kigali said he had no evidence to support
a British Broadcasting Corporation report that thousands of displaced
people in the city's main stadium were threatening to commit suicide if
all U.N. forces pulled out.
The people at stadium have expressed their great concern at the news
that the United Nations was leaving but none of them have threatened
suicide,
said UNAMIR's executive director, Abdul Kabia.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which said it had
rarely seen a human tragedy on the scale of the massacres, urged U.N.
peacekeepers to stay in the country, now bordering on famine.
In neighbouring Burundi, state-radio said President Sylvestre
Ntibantunganya held a meeting of ministers and representatives of the
security fores and local government to find a lasting solution to
sporadic violence in the past week.
The radio said fighting was continuing in the capital of Bujumbura.
Diplomats fear Burundi, which like Rwanda has a long history of
bloodshed between its Hutu majority and Tutsi minority, may soon
explode.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
