Citation
NYARUSHISHI, Rwanda, June 26—
For the moment, the French paratroops seemed like saviors to the 3,000
Tutsi men, women and children sitting wearily in the tall grass here
today.
In their combat fatigues, red berets and sunglasses, and with their
assault rifles at the ready, the paratroops alertly scanned the hills
for signs of danger as the crowd listened intently to a priest's
sermon at Sunday mass.
"Perhaps you think God does not exist because of all the killing," the
priest, dressed in white robes, told his listeners, whose clothes were
tattered and soiled. "But even in worst times, God has given
consolation to those who believe in him. With his love and the courage
he gives us, we can survive."
These men, women and children are desperate for solace. Living as
refugees under green- and-blue plastic shelters in this camp near the
Zairian border, they are survivors of a vicious civil war that has
pitted the Hutu ethnic majority against the Tutsi minority and left
hundreds of thousands dead.
Along the perimeter of the congregation, whose singing was carried by
the warm breezy morning air, were the French paratroops, fanned out
against an undulating carpet of tea bushes broken by patches of banana
plants.
The French are seen as rescuers by the Hutu ethnic majority as well as
most of the minority Tutsi here.
But the euphoria generated by the troops' arrival last week on a
short-term mission to protect threatened Rwandans may be ephemeral,
and even contain the seeds of future difficulties here for France. As
the American military discovered last year in Somalia, the French are
finding that Rwandans have their own ideas on what the paratroops
should do.
The French have said emphatically that their mission is a mercy
effort, not a military campaign, and that they will leave by July
31. But that is not what the Tutsi refugees here want.
"We want them to stay for a long time, because if they leave we will
be killed," said Francis Sibomana, one of 8,000 Tutsi at the refugee
camp here, after the Mass.
Mr. Sibomana has not seen his wife and five children since April 10,
when he fled his village during a ferocious attack on Tutsi by a Hutu
militia. His eldest son was killed with a spear, he said.
The attack came four days after a plane carrying President Juvenal
Habyarimana, a Hutu, mysteriously crashed near the capital. The crash
unleashed a wave of anger that quickly led to attacks by Hutu
extremists against the Tutsi and against Hutu suspected of moderate
political views.
The Hutu in Cyangugu, a commercial and administrative town just
northeast of here, have also welcomed the paratroops' presence, part
of a French deployment of up to 2,500 troops.
But rather than protect Tutsi refugees, those Hutu assert, the French
should be fighting with them against the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan
Patriotic Front, the rebel group that has seized control of about
two-thirds of the country. A Welcome for the French
"We are very, very glad that the French are here," said a Hutu man in
Cyangugu, which lies at the southern tip of picturesque Lake
Kivu. "The R.P.F. wants to kill all of us."
A French tricolor flies from automobile antennas in the town, and
"Vive la France!" is written in white chalk on storefronts.
The last time the French sent paratroops to Rwanda, in 1990, it was to
prop up a Hutu-dominated Government in the face of attacks by the
rebel front. As recently as six months ago, French troops were
stationed here in support of the Government.
It is this history that makes many Hutu confident that the French will
help them. "We will ask the French soldiers to fight with us against
the R.P.F., to push them back into Uganda," said Jean Katanga, a
48-year-old weaver in Cyangugu.
Mr. Katanga expressed a similar sentiment about the Tutsi people as a
whole. "They are a minority, and they have to know they are a
minority," he said of the Tutsi, who make up approximately 10 percent
of the population in this densely populated country of 7 million. 'A
Race of Vipers'
Such animosity is reflected in a French-language flyer posted on the
faded yellow wall of the immigration post at Cyangugu. "The Tutsi are
out to exterminate us," it begins. "We know you are a race of vipers,"
it said, "drinkers of Bantu blood."
Virtually no Tutsi live in Cyangugu any more, since all have been
killed or have fled.
Although the Hutu and Tutsi speak the same language and the same
culture, tensions between the groups have persisted since the days of
Belgian colonial rule, when the Tutsi were often employed as
administrators.
Still, most of Rwanda's Hutu and Tutsi have lived together in relative
peace. Many villagers interviewed at the refugee camp after the Mass
said they had never known who was a Tutsi and who a Hutu.
But views like those of Mr. Katanga are easily found in Cyangugu,
reflecting the effectiveness of the propaganda that leaders of Hutu
extremists have used to whip up hatred and insure that the Hutu hang
on to political control.
When it was announced that the French were coming, a Hutu radio
station, RTLM, broadcast that the troops were coming to help the Hutu
kill the Tutsi, people at the refugee camp here said.
But the arrival of 50 French paratroops, who are garrisoned on a
hilltop overlooking the refugee camp, rapidly dispelled fears. Fear of
the Militia
"Before they came we were always afraid. Mr. Sibomana said. "We didn't
sleep at night, fearing the militia would come and kill us." At least
three times in recent weeks, Hutu militiamen entered the camp and
seized men, took them out and killed them nearby, the refugees said.
The refugee camp here was set up here at the end of April, when about
3,300 Tutsi were moved from the sports stadium in Cyangugu. There are
now 8,000 Tutsi in the camp, many of them children suffering from
severe malnutrition. They are ministered to the International
Committee of the Red Cross, the only relief organization that is still
working in this dangerous region.
"Now, if any militia tried to enter the refugee camp, we will kill
them; it is very clear," said Lieut. Col. Andre Colin, commander of
the French paratrooper unit guarding the camp.
His unit, deployed from the French city of Toulouse, patrol the
surrounding hills day and night. That is where the dangers have been
greatest for the refugees, many of whom who have been killed while
returning to their villages to fetch bananas or medicinal
herbs. Rwandan Troops Nearby
Many of the refugees in the camp remain fearful because Rwandan
Government paramilitary troops are in the vicinity. Twenty yards from
the spot where Colonel Colin spoke with reporters, several Rwandan
soldiers sat on a bench sharing a beer with two women as they gazed on
the refugee shelters.
"We remain very worried about the soldiers; if we complain they can
take us away," said one refugee who declined to give his name,
lowering his voice as a Rwandan Government soldier wearing a
camouflage uniform and red beret and carrying an automatic rifle
walked through the camp. He slowed down as he came to the group.
Later a Rwandan soldier with a grenade hanging from his belt sternly
warned the refugees not to talk to journalists.
Asked about the presence of the Rwandan soldiers in the camp, Colonel
Colin said, "It is their country." Despair Is Dispelled
In late April, the International Committee of the Red Cross had called
for an international force to be sent to Rwanda, and they welcome the
French presence. Before the troops came, they said, the refugees were
despairing.
"They had no will to live," said Ariane Tombet, a Red Cross worker who
has been here since April. "When they had diarrhea, we would tell them
to drink water, but they said, 'Why bother?' " Today, she said, there
is a mood of hope in the camp.
Still, relief officials are cautious, uncertain of where the French
intervention might lead. "It remains to be seen if this is the right
way," said Nina Winquist, a spokeswoman here for the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
