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THOUSANDS of terrified Hutu refugees yesterday tried to follow
departing French troops out of Rwanda to safety in Zaire. They were
forced back by Zairean troops firing into the air at a closed river
border crossing.
The main crossing over the Ruzizi river was closed because of fears
that the lakeside town of Bukavu would be overwhelmed by refugees.
Yesterday thousands of desperate people mainly Hutus in fear of
reprisals by the victorious Tutsis pushed aside Ethiopian United
Nations peacekeepers at the rickety bridge only to be blocked by
Zairean troops beyond.
The refugees rushed back across the bridge, and regrouped to stampede
again, only to be repulsed repeatedly by Zaireans firing in the air and
training machineguns on the crowd. A few swam across, cheered on by
those stranded on the other side.
In Kinshasa, the Zaire capital, the government called for an infusion
of foreign aid to prevent Bukavu becoming stripped bare by refugees who
are already facing an epidemic of dysentery.
If the international community pays enough heed to the gravity of the
situation, Zaire may review its position,
it said. It is not because
of a surge of xenophobia that we closed the border, but because we have
serious logistical problems.
Bukavu is host to about 360,000 Rwandan refugees, 40,000 of whom
arrived last week. At the weekend about 2,500 an hour were crossing at
Ruzizi. But when the barricade was set up many families became
separated. Mothers, parted from their children after a week-long trek
through Rwanda's mountains from Gikongoro, where most of the 800,000
refugees in the safe zone were living, wept and screamed as they saw
their children disappear in the crowd.
Patrick Fuller, a Red Cross spokesman, said that after lengthy
negotiations between the UN and the Zaire administration, the border
was opened yesterday afternoon at a second bridge 12 miles away. But
the crossing would be sealed at night.
Ethiopian and Ghanaian peacekeepers have failed to win the confidence
of the Hutu refugees in the safe zone, who have been terrified by an
announcement from Kigali that the Rwandan Patriotic Front would enter
the zone after the French leave.
Hutu tribesmen are suspicious of the slender and thin-nosed Ethiopians,
who resemble the Tutsis. Yesterday the new UN mission was off to a
disastrous start when Ethiopian troops stood by helplessly as missiles
and abuse were hurled at them by fleeing Hutus.
Nina Winquist, spokeswoman for the International Committee for the Red
Cross, said: If this is the first indication of what will happen with
the French withdrawal, it doesn't bode well.
The Ethiopians, anxious to win the confidence of the Hutus, insisted
that they would not try to stop people crossing to Zaire. Our mandate
is to respect the wishes of the people,
one said. We have no mandate
to open fire, not even in the air. We are with the people.
