Citation
GENEVA, April 14 (Reuter) - At least 30 Rwandan Red Cross workers have
been killed in the country's fighting and the figure could rise, the
international IFRC Red Cross organisation said on Thursday.
It is the largest ever single loss of Red Cross lives in the history
of the Federation and there are fears the death toll will rise,
said
the the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, which groups together 161 national societies worldwide.
The workers were all killed as they helped families, friends and
strangers while the wave of violence swept through the capital,
Kigali,
it added in a statement from the Geneva headquarters.
The central African state has been awash with ethnic bloodletting since
the assassination of its president last week. Rebels from the minority
Tutsi tribe have since captured large parts of the country and are
threatening the capital.
Federation spokeswoman Bodine Williams told Reuters the dead included
both full-time Red Cross staff and volunteers.
We've verified all our records for 75 years and we've never seen as
many Red Cross workers killed in an upheaval of this nature -- not even
close,
she said.
The leadership of the Rwandan Red Cross was thought to be safe although
the situation in the country had made it extremely difficult to
establish the whereabouts of its staff.
The Federation has evacuated 13 of its 14 international staff in
Rwanda, where it set up a major operation last October alongside the
Rwandan Red Cross to help over 200,000 refugees from neighbouring
Burundi. That operation has ground to a halt.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other aid
organisations say that thousands of Burundis in refugee camps inside
Rwanda have already decided to flee.
But Williams said that with Burundi itself still torn by ethnic
conflict, many had no idea where to go.
The problem for refugees is that they don't know where to run to. But
we expect the are going to be big movements to neigbouring countries,
she said.
She added that international aid agencies such as the Federation and
the UNHCR had to decide where to base their operations in the region.
News of the deaths came after the Federation launced a 3.5 million
Swiss franc ($2.4 million) emergency appeal to help up to 50,000
refugees from Rwanda.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
