Citation
KINSHASA, April 14 (Reuter) - Zaire has offered asylum to a group of
former Rwandan government ministers who have fled to neighbouring
Burundi with their families, a government official said on Thursday.
The official said the group of former ministers, who include members of
Rwanda's short-lived interim government, had flown to Burundi's capital
of Bujumbura earlier this week.
Given a certain amount of local hostility in Bujumbura, we have agreed
for humanitarian reasons to a request from the Red Cross and UNHCR to
grant these people residence permits,
said the official, who asked not
to be identified.
He could not say which ministers were in the group or how many people
were involved, saying the Zairean government was still awaiting
details. But he thought the group numbered around 100.
They are due to fly out of Bujumbura today on a Transal plane bound for
the eastern Zairean town of Bukavu, on the border with Rwanda and
Burundi.
The entire Rwandan cabinet fled Kigali on Tuesday as rebel troops
advanced on the battered capital after days of tribal slaughter which
followed the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash.
The Burundi president was also killed in the same crash.
Rwanda's former health minister, Casimir Bizimungu, has already flown
to Kinshasa. But the minister, a close friend of the former Rwandan
president, is understood to be carrying official messages from Kigali
rather than seeking asylum.
The flood of terrified Rwandan refugees into eastern Zaire continued on
Thursday. A UNHCR spokeswoman in Kinshasa said more than 9,300 Rwandans
had crossed the border over the last few days, many travelling as far
as the central city of Kisangani.
She said many of the refugees were lodging with friends and relatives,
while others were living in hostels or make-shift camps.
UNHCR, UNICEF, ICRC and local non-governmental organisations and
religious groups are meeting the new arrivals and arranging for
blankets, tents, baby food and soap to be flown into the area.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
