Citation
GENEVA, April 8 (Reuter) - National staff of the United Nations
Children's Fund UNICEF have been attacked in the Rwandan capital
Kigali, but first reports indicated there were no serious injuries or
death, U.N. officials said on Friday.
A spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also
said about 5,000 Rwandans and Burundis had fled their countries for
Zaire since their presidents were killed on Wednesday when rockets
apparently downed their plane.
He was reading from a report filed to Geneva overnight by Carlos
Rodriguez, the UNHCR's representative in Kigali, where fighting raged
after the prime minister and 10 Belgian U.N. peacekeepers guarding her
were killed.
Pogroms and (ethnic) purification is taking place throughout the
city,
the UNHCR report said. There are no reports of disturbances in
the countryside.
UNICEF national staff was attacked in Kigali but there are no reports
of serious injuries or death,
it added.
A UNICEF spokeswoman in Geneva confirmed she had received a sketchy
internal report on the attack, but had no details and was trying to
reach the agency's representative in Kigali.
The UNHCR said it was trying to get additional relief supplies into
Zaire, which was already home to 65,000 Burundis.
The UNHCR runs camps for a total of 375,000 Burundis who remain in
three countries of asylum after fleeing tribal slaughter last October.
It has an international staff of 30 in Rwanda and 50 local staff,
according to the spokesman.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
