Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 19, 1994 TAG: 9407200072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: GOMA, ZAIRE LENGTH: Medium
``We have captured all of Rwanda up to the French protection zone and a cease-fire is effectively in place,'' the rebel leader, Paul Kagame, said Monday in Kigali, the capital.
``There is no need for anyone to flee Rwanda,'' he said, according to The Associated Press. ``We guarantee all Rwandans stability and security.'' But he warned that in addition to the many innocent refugees, there were others who ``can't forget they have a lot of blood on their hands and will have to answer for it.''
International relief agencies had been pleading with the rebels for more than a week to declare a cease-fire, but the reaction to the announcement was subdued among relief workers. The cease-fire came only after the front's military operations had forced more than a million Rwandans to flee into Zaire, and relief agencies are exhausted in trying to cope.
No one expects the refugees to begin returning to Rwanda soon. Most are Hutu, and they are convinced that if they go back they will be killed by the Tutsi, who are now dominant.
In 24 hours more than 100,000 refugees fled to Bukavo, in Zaire, about 70 miles south of Goma. Another half-million Rwandans may be on the move toward Bukavu, relief officials said Monday evening.
``We do not need another exodus into the Bukavu area,'' said Brian Atwood, a director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, who visited Goma on Monday. ``We could not handle that.''
He noted that Bukavu is smaller and less developed than Goma, and ``it remains to be seen if we can handle'' the refugees in Goma.
``It is the most extraordinary thing I think I have ever seen in my life,'' said Atwood, who is President Clinton's coordinator for international disaster assistance, speaking at the French air base in Goma. The road past the airport was clogged with refugees trying to move north, to where relief agencies hope to establish a camp.
``This is 1.2 million people looking desperately for food, for medicine, for care,'' he said. ``That's more people than live in the cities of Boston or Denver, or Seattle, or Baltimore.''
For the first time in many days, the border crossing was quiet. Fields near the border that had been jammed with refugees were empty. But it was the silence of death.
In a field 50 yards east of the border, down by Lake Kivu, there was a large area of debris - straw mats, gourds, an open umbrella, suitcases, clothes. There were several dead goats - and 15 dead humans, most of them children. Several were naked. They were clustered together. They had been trampled to death, trapped between the lake and a high wall that protected an expensive two-story, lakeside house where a Mercedes Benz was in the driveway.
Up the road, the bodies of at least 100 refugees were found on the Zaire side of the border. They had been trampled to death on Sunday when the thud of mortars and fire fights caused panic among thousands of refugees who were packed into a small area.
by CNB