Citation
BRUSSELS, April 16 (Reuter) - Belgium said on Saturday it was set for a
fast withdrawal of its 420 United Nations peacekeepers from Rwanda.
The go-ahead has been given,
Foreign Minister Claes told a news
conference. He said all conditions, political and military, had been
met for the peacekeepers' departure.
There is no time to waste,
Claes said. He declined to give details on
the evacuation plan.
It's impossible to give a precise date,
Belgian armed forces
spokesman Colonel Gilbert Hertoghe said.
The most likely solution seems to be a road convoy. We think this is a
safe and economical way to leave the country,
Hertoghe told Belgian
BRTN radio.
Belgium is pulling out its contingent in the U.N. force partly because
of a wave of anti-Belgian anger among Rwanda's Hutu majority.
Many Hutus believe the Belgians support the country's rebels and were
involved in the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, who
died in an attack on his plane this month. Belgium has denied the
accusations.
Claes said that about 100 people, mainly Europeans, were waiting at
Kigali airport for evacuation.
The Security Council has not yet decided on the future of the
2,500-member U.N. Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), set up last
year to help implement an agreement signed in Arusha, Tanzania, aimed
at ending a three-year civil war.
The Belgians' role was seen as pivotal in the contingent.
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has already said that the
Belgians' withdrawal was allowed.
Claes said on Thursday that Belgium, the former colonial power in
Rwanda, would withdraw its U.N. contingent, no matter what the U.N.
Security Council might decide.
Claes also said that the UNAMIR force commander, Canadian
Brigadier-General Rome Dallaire, had already received orders to
evacuate the Belgian troops.
The minister said the situation in Kigali, scene of an orgy of ethnic
violence between the Hutu and minority Tutsi tribes, was deteriorating.
He added the Kigali airport runway could be destroyed during fighting
between government and rebel forces.
Claes also said he had been informed by good sources
that the
government troops might attack the Belgian peacekeepers.
Hertoghe said earlier that Belgium had sent more troops than previously
announced to Rwanda for the evacuation of the 1,500 Belgian nationals
there.
About 750 (Belgian troops) took part in the evacuation in Rwanda,
colonel Gilbert Hertoghe told Reuters. Another 200 extra troops were on
standby in Nairobi, Kenya, he said.
Belgium earlier announced it had sent just 400 paratroops.
Army officials said they had kept silent about the extra troops because
Rwanda had only given permission to send 400.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
