...Says, "Hello,my brothers."Tutsi, Zairian Troops Battle For Town; U.N. Warehouse Looted
By Chris Tomlinson Associated Press Writer
...Says, "Hello,my brothers."Monday, October 28, 1996, CYANGUGU, Rwanda (AP) - Tutsi rebels tradedmortar and small-arms fire today with Zairian troops in eastern Zaire, as500,000 refugees fled the fighting and warehouses of U.N. food were reportedlooted.
Sporadic gunfire could be heard today in Bukavu, a provincial capital ineastern Zaire. Fighting Sunday sent thousands of Bukavu residents streamingwest and north, as the two sides clashed a few miles to the south.
The U.N. refugee agency said at least four people were killed and 100 woundedin that fighting Sunday. Witness reports that many more had died could notbe confirmed.
A struggle for land and power between ethnic Tutsis and Hutus - which hasleft hundreds of thousands dead in the last three years in neighboring Rwandaand Burundi - has spilled over into Zaire, now home to many of the refugees.
U.N. officials say the developing situation in eastern Zaire could rivalthe humanitarian disaster of 1994, when hundreds of thousands of RwandanHutus fled into Zaire after their compatriots slaughtered 500,000 RwandanTutsis.
The 1.2 million refugees in Zaire are mainly Hutu, and for at least thelast two years they have been housed in 40 U.N. refugee camps along theborder. From those camps, militant Hutus have launched attacks on the Tutsi-ledgovernments in Burundi and Rwanda.
Now the government of Zaire, with the help of some militant Hutu refugees,has ordered out and attacked ethnic Tutsis who have been living in easternZaire for at least 200 years. In response, Tutsis formed a militia and beganto fight back last month.
Today, U.N. officials said Zairian soldiers and civilians looted reliefagency warehouses in Bukavu, as well as the homes of aid workers who wereevacuated over the weekend. Nearly 100 aid workers have been evacuated fromBukavu.
More looting was reported in Goma, some 60 miles to the north.
Michele Quintaglie of U.N. World Food Program said homes of ethnic Tutsisin Goma had been reported looted and a huge crowd surrounded the WFP warehousein Goma today.
``We sense the security situation could lead to problems with our food beinglooted,'' Quintaglie said.
Brenda Barton, another WFP spokeswoman, said the agency was distributingthe food today to an estimated 600,000 refugees in all camps around Goma.
``We feel it is urgent to distribute the food in light of precarious securityin Goma,'' Burton said. ``We do not wish to lose the food.''
Barton said each refugee would be given enough food for 10 to 20 days.
This month, fear of fighting sent more than 300,000 Burundian and RwandanHutu refugees fleeing from camps near Uvira, Zaire, scattering into themountains.
An additional 200,000 refugees joined the exodus after a barrage of artilleryand mortar fire Friday and Saturday hit the Kibumba refugee camp in theGoma region, 125 miles north of Uvira.
Rwandan border guards today said armed Hutu militias from the refugee campswere preventing some Hutu refugees from leaving Zaire and returning to Rwanda,their homeland.
The Hutu militiants - many of whom joined in the massacre of 500,000 Tutsisin Rwanda - don't want other Hutus to go home, since then the U.N. wouldclose the camps in Zaire.
In anticipation of an influx of refugees returning to Rwanda, the WorldFood Program is stockpiling 63,000 tons of food in the Rwandan capital,Kigali.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata asked combatants to stopattacking refugees and to open escape corridors for them.
``What hurts me most are reports that women and children are again caughtin this terrible tragedy,'' Ogata said Sunday. ``The first refugees to reachthe hospital in Goma after the attacks this weekend were 36 women and children,all of them suffering from shrapnel wounds.''
Another woman gave birth along the road to Goma, she said.
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