Citation
BRUSSELS, April 11 (Reuter) - Belgium started a high-risk evacuation of
its nationals from Rwanda on Monday as rebels were reported to be
closing in on the capital Kigali.
Top Rwandan rebel leaders said two of their battalions were nearing
Kigali in a move they said was to restore order in the city awash in
tribal bloodshed.
We estimate that about 300 Belgians have already been evacuated,
Colonel Freddy Van Den Weghe, spokesman for Belgium's armed forces,
told a news conference in Brussels.
Most of the Belgians were airlifted from Kigali to Nairobi, Kenya, in
Belgian military C-130 planes with 20 others on a Canadian plane, he
said.
Belgian airline Sabena has sent three planes to Nairobi at the request
of the Belgian government, Sabena spokeswoman Pascale Zoetaert said.
The three planes, including a Boeing 747, can evacuate up to 800
people, she said.
The first plane is due to return in Brussels around 2300 GMT, Zoetaert
said.
Van Den Weghe said the situation remained tense and difficult in the
former Belgian colony. He said it was still unclear whether Belgians
could be evacuated from areas outside Kigali.
Belgian BRTN radio correspondent Katrien Van der Schoot told the radio
from Kigali she had been told by the Belgian embassy that the
evacuation from the city was running smoothly and was nearly completed.
Earlier, the commander of Belgian troops serving as part of a
2,500-strong U.N. force in Rwanda said there was still firing in parts
of the capital but the fighting was less intense than in previous days.
Police are trying to get security under control and are rooting out
looters,
Colonel Luc Marchal told Belgian radio.
Paratroops were flown into Kigali on Sunday as part of an international
effort to evacuate Belgians and other expatriates after an orgy of
violence in the capital.
Tens of thousands of people have died following the assassination of
the country's president last week.
Van Den Weghe said there were 400 Belgian paratroops in Kigali. He said
French troops also in the city would help evacuate Belgians. It's a
coordinated operation. It is clear that some (French troops) will
stay,
he said.
Some 90 Belgians -- there are 1,500 in the former colony, the biggest
contingent of Westerners -- arrived in Brussels early on Monday on a
flight from neighbouring Burundi. They had escaped in an overland
convoy from southern Rwanda.
Belgian Defence Minister Leo Delcroix warned on Sunday of the dangers
in the evacuation and said it could take more than a week.
The Belgians are unpopular among the majority Hutu tribe which believes
they support the rebels. There were also rumours in Kigali that Belgium
was involved in the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana. Belgium has
denied both charges.
But Rwanda's ambassador to Belgium denied that there were anti-Belgian
feelings among Rwanda's population.
In a statement to the Belga news agency, Francois Ngarukiyintwali said
certain media were cultivating the thesis of an antagonist
anti-Belgian sentiment.
...This is a deliberate provocation which could precisely stir this
kind of sentiment, he said.
Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes said earlier that six Belgian
civilians have been killed in Rwanda since ethnic violence erupted in
the former Belgian colony last week.
The latest toll brings to 16 the number of Belgians killed in Rwanda.
Ten Belgian paratroops were killed last Thursday while trying in vain
to protect Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingyimana, who was later
killed.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
