Rwandan Tribal Conflict Continues; Deaths said to be 20,000 or more

11 April 1994

NAIROBI—As the tribal conflict in the Central African nation of Rwanda began to recede this week, relief workers in Kigali, the capital, reported that casualties in the fighting could now exceed 20,000 people.

The United Nations has found itself increasingly unable to contain the conflict, even as the warring Hutu and Tutsi tribal groups signed a ceasefire earlier this week. Observers report that the streets of Kigali are lined with mutilated corpses of civilians and combatants alike.

Even as hundreds of Americans and Europeans were evacuated from the country, by land and by air, earlier this month, the conflict has refused to abate. American Ambassador David Rawson, and the remaining 250 Americans living in Rwanda, are expected to leave the country in a convoy before being flown to Nairobi.

The violence has claimed the lives of 10 Belgian peacekeepers, as well as a French soldier and his wife, who were serving in the 2,500-strong United Nations peacekeeping force. 330 United States Marines have been deployed to secure the safety of fleeing Americans at the city’s airport but will not take part in the convoy or peacekeeping operations.

An estimated 500 French residents in Rwanda were flown out by authorities earlier today, while 800 Belgian troops arrived in Kigali to begin the evacuation of Belgian citizens in the region.

Officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross estimate that the death toll is likely higher than 20,000. Deputy Red Cross Head Patrick Gasser said relief workers in Kigali counted 1,000 bodies at one city hospital alone.

Wire reporters in Kigali have described a disturbingly sweet odour in the city streets as government officials off-load bodies in mass graves. City and government officials wish to remove the bodies from the streets to combat the spread of disease, according to workers.

The corpses being loaded into graves included men, women, and children alike, many of whom exhibited horrific stab wounds.

Some city streets are under the control of violent street gangs, reported Reuters. Most of these streets gangs are made up of primarily young men, often drunk, wielding knives, machetes, and other weapons.

United Nations employees are still having difficulty accessing conflict zones. Earlier today, a United Nations convoy bringing aid workers and supplies from Burundi was surrounded by an angry mob, which demanded money to be allowed in Kigali. Although the 22-car convoy arrived safely in the city, it took nearly four hours of negotiation with soldiers and mob leaders.

The bulk of the fighting broke out on Wednesday when an aeroplane carrying the President of Rwanda and Burundi crashed in Kigali. The deaths enflamed tribal tensions that have troubled Africa for centuries.

Following claims that the plane had been deliberately brought down, forces loyal to President Juvenal Habyarimana, a member of the Hutu tribe, invaded the city streets and began a bloodletting of Tutsi civilians and their supporters. Primarily Tutsi rebel groups have been camped in Kigali since the two groups entered into a ceasefire last summer.

So far, the fighting has not spread into Burundi, a neighbouring African country with a similar Hutu-Tutsi makeup. Some diplomats and officials also feared that the conflict would spread outside of Kigali into the countryside, but that front has remained relatively quiet.

The plane crash that killed Habyarimana also killed President Cyprien Ntaryamira, also a Hutu. Despite this, Burundi has remained relatively stable.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that all Americans who wished to leave Kigali had already done so. He said three evacuation convoys had already left the city on Saturday, while another two had left today.

‘In the great tradition, the Ambassador was in the last car,’ he said. ‘So the evacuation has gone very well’.

Administration officials say the convoys were flying as many American flags as possible since the United States does not attract violent animosity from the warring parties. American troops not joining the intervention force gives the nation a neutral stance in the conflict.

The convoys were guarded by Rwandan military police, according to officials.

The State Department said a plane carried 123 American evacuees from Burundi to Kenya, and another plane carrying an additional 123 Americans, and some foreigners, will depart from Burundi on Monday.

Mr Christopher said the American Embassy in Kigali has been shuttered but not overrun by any of the feuding parties.

The Secretary said he and Ambassador Rawson had determined that a land evacuation would be safer than one by air. He said the risk of being shot down and waiting at the airport incurred too much risk.

American Marines—still dressed in their dun-green-coloured uniforms from their previous posting in Somalia—were scrambled to Burundi to ensure stability there.

Mr Christopher said there were no plans to send any U.S. marines in Burundi into Rwanda to help restore order. He specified that the troops already stationed in the region were to assist in the ongoing evacuation.