Citation
NAIROBI, April 22 (Reuter) - Rebel reinforcements advanced on
government forces in the Rwandan capital of Kigali after both sides
agreed to peace talks and the U.N. voted to withdraw all but a few
hundred of its peacekeepers.
U.N. 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 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, the U.N. Security Council interrupted a debate on Bosnia
to adopt a resolution reducing the Rwanda force, once numbering 2,500,
to a bare minimum of 270 military and civilian personnel. The
resolution would leave the force commander, Canadian General Romeo
Dallaire, and his staff in Kigali as an intermediary between the
warring Hutu and Tutsi groups and to assist relief operations.
Remaining also would be the chief U.N. civilian representative,
Jacques-Roger Booh Booh of Cameroon.
Tanzania said yesterday Rwanda's government and rebels had agreed to
talks on Saturday in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.
In 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 also has a long history of conflict
between the Hutu and Tutsi groups, may soon explode.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
