Citation
From Sam Kiley in Nyarushishi, western Rwanda.
French troops, sent to protect civilians from massacres in Rwanda, were
yesterday told to change the focus of their mission. Their new orders
are to win over the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which has
threatened to kill French soldiers.
Operation Turquoise, the French mission to Rwanda, began on Thursday
when 50 commandos entered the country from neighbouring Zaire. More
special forces had been expected to cross at Goma, further north,
closer to the front line between the mainly Tutsi rebels and Hutu
government troops, who have been accused of orchestrating the genocide
campaign.
Yesterday, however, the French troops, part of a contingent of 2,500
men backed by light tanks and helicopters, were instructed to expand
their operations into southern Rwanda to win the confidence of the
rebels. A senior French military source said that the entry of their
troops through Goma and Gisenyi, in the north of Rwanda, would be
delayed for several days. There are thought to be several pockets of
Tutsis, hiding from government militias and soldiers, at the nearby
town of Ruhengeri. The town, once the rebel base for staging operations
into the Virunga mountains, has been surrounded by the RPF.
French troops will now deploy to the north, east, and south from the
border town of Cyangugu in search of more refugees fleeing the
massacres. In Paris yesterday, a French military officer said that the
troops had discovered mass graves near Cyangugu, held by government
forces. He could not say how many bodies were buried.
The toughest task for the French will be to find the thousands of
people believed to be hiding in the dense tropical rain forest of
Nyunga, which covers a huge area of the south of this tiny central
African country. During the weekend, they will also head south to
Bugarama, in search of 15,000 Tutsis, the main victims of the
massacres, and north to Kabuye, where there are at least 45 Tutsi nuns
being held captive.
Yesterday, a small team of commandos drove into the interior of Rwanda
to the small village of Gatete, where 2,000 people were slaughtered on
April 29, two days after their safety had been assured by a senior
local official. Now only nine teenage Tutsi girls remain alive in the
care of Catholic sisters, seven of whom are also Tutsi.
The French officers, who visited Gatete, vowed to send a patrol to the
village every few days. They have warned the local police that they
would be held responsible for the safety of the refugees. However,
after they left, one of the nuns said that neither she nor the Tutsi
girls were able to leave the school. We would be killed instantly,
she said.
She said the massacre of the Tutsis in the village had been carried out
mainly by their Hutu neighbours, who went on the rampage after the army
perpetrated the killings by throwing grenades into rooms where the
Tutsis had been sheltering. The killers were enjoying themselves. Most
of the people in the town joined in, or were killed. The innocent ones
came here to hide from the screams of their friends,
she said.
The tough approach adopted by the French forces is clearly aimed at
winning over the rebels. They are also determined to show that France
has no ulterior motive in its intervention in Rwanda, and that its only
objective is to save people from the militias who have killed hundreds
of thousands since April. Finding those still left alive in a land
where the French have been threatened with death, will, however, be a
tough task.
Yesterday, the Rwandan rebels bombarded the centre of Kigali, the
government-held capital, inflicting dozens of casualties. The Red Cross
hospital and the public market came under mortar attack. At least seven
patients were reported to have been killed.
A bomb just fell on the emergency block,
said Philippe Gaillard, the
chief delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross in
Kigali. He said dozens of wounded had been brought to the hospital
since Thursday.
