Citation
KIGALI, April 8 (Reuter) - Fighting raged for a second day in the
Rwandan capital Kigali and around its rebel-held parliament early today
as rival tribes and political groups battled for control in renewed
civil war.
With the country in a power vacuum following the killing of Rwanda's
president on Wednesday night and its woman prime minister on Thursday,
a new day began with the scream of mortar bombs and crackle of rifle
fire.
A Rwandan resident said there was an orgy of killings out there
.
Fires raged in the city as rebels and soldiers battled around
parliament and people from the minority Tutsi and majority Hutu tribes
fell to slaughtering each other.
They fight, then rest, then resume. It's calm one moment, then
suddenly there are explosions,
the resident said.
In Brussels, the Belgian government -- former colonial power in Rwanda
and neighbouring Burundi -- said soldiers had killed 10 Belgian U.N.
peacekeepers on Thursday.
U.N. officials feared violence between Rwanda's Hutu and Tutsi tribes
would spread outside the capital, battered by its worst clashes since
the start of civil war four years ago.
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) appealed to Rwandans to
end violence and urged countries that helped broker a peace accord
between the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) and the government last
year to act to restore order.
The rebels already in Kigali had been based in parliament since
December after they entered the city peacefully to take part in the
peace plan.
In one incident the Kigali resident saw government soldiers hack to
death a young man they accused of being an RPF fighter.
President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu who took power in 1973, and
Cyprien Ntaryamira, president of neighbouring Burundi, died when a
plane bringing them back from regional peace talks in Tanzania was hit
by a rocket on Wednesday night.
It was the first time in modern history that two heads of state were
assassinated together. Who killed them was not clear. The
predominantly-Tutsi RPF denied involvement.
U.N. officials said casualties from Thursday's violence were
surprisingly high
, but further details were due to be issued today.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
