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IN THE midst of the desperation, despair and death of the Rwandan
refugee camps in Zaire, these children occupy an oasis of hope.
They are among 4,000 youngsters being cared for in the SOS children's
centre near Goma, where they are being kept alive by a clutch of
charities armed with the almost unheard of luxuries of food, clean
water and for the sick intravenous drips. As cholera claims the lives
of some 3,000 refugees in the area every day, the main threat to the
children is posed by the tens of thousands of defeated Rwandan soldiers
surrounding the SOS village.
Aid workers fear that they may turn on the small number of Tutsi
children hidden in the compound or try to steal food from the
youngsters as their own supplies run low.
Suzannah Swan, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is
trying to reunite toddlers with their families and to care for orphans
found beside their parents' bodies. Security is our greatest concern,
aside from the medical problems,
she said. Yesterday they (the
militiamen) went on the rampage outside the gates and injured several
of the Zairean guards.
Fear of intimidation by the Hutu Rwandan soldiers in and around Goma is
just one of the problems facing aid workers struggling to deal with a
humanitarian crisis almost beyond comprehension. With cholera running
rampant through the camps, they are desperate for experts to dig
latrines and for supplies of fresh water.
The vaunted American aid effort has been widely derided while still in
its infancy, and yesterday airdrops were suspended to allow US
officials and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to take
stock.
While they talk, the cholera death toll continues to soar; it is said
to have reached 13,000 or 14,000 in the past six days. A mass grave the
size of a football pitch is full, and yesterday workers on the ground
were given approval to start burning corpses.
There was some relief, however, in the knowledge that thousands of
refugees have started to return to Rwanda, where clean water is
plentiful and crops are ready to be harvested. Hutus who fled after
being bombarded with radio propaganda warning them of reprisals for the
massacres of the past three months are beginning to believe the
promises from the UN and the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front
that it is safe to return home.
Or at least, they are deciding to take a chance on survival in Rwanda
rather than risk their lives in cholera-infested camps in Zaire.
