VARIOUS: INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO RETURN RWANDAN REFUGEES TO THEIR HOMELANDS CONTINUE
Record ID:
275030
VARIOUS: INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO RETURN RWANDAN REFUGEES TO THEIR HOMELANDS CONTINUE
- Title: VARIOUS: INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO RETURN RWANDAN REFUGEES TO THEIR HOMELANDS CONTINUE
- Date: 2nd November 1996
- Summary: GOMA, ZAIRE/ GISENYI AND NEAR GISENYI RWANDA/ PARIS, FRANCE/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (NOVEMBER 2-4, 1996)(RTV - ACCESS ALL) GOMA, ZAIRE (NOVEMBER 2, 1996) 1. GV EMPTY STREETS AND ABANDONED BUILDINGS (6 SHOTS) 0.25 GISENYI, RWADA (NOVEMBER 3, 1996) 2. LV RWANDAN GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN EMMANUEL NDAHIRO PRESS CONFERENCE IN PRO
- Embargoed: 17th November 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GOMA, ZAIRE/ GISENYI AND NEAR GISENYI RWANDA/ PARIS, FRANCE/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- City:
- Country: Various
- Reuters ID: LVA37RESE0QVXQPUAX27XONU7QEN
- Story Text: INTRO: Tutsi rebels in eastern Zaire have offered a three-week ceasefire after a string of military successes, including, they say, the capture of Goma. The recent fighting has turned more than a million Rwandan Hutu into refugees stranded with little food or water.
The Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Kabila said on Monday (November 4) his fighters would begin a three-week ceasefire from 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) to allow Rwandan and Burundian Hutu refugees to return home from Zaire.
But the rebels warned that combat would resume if Zaire did not agree to the truce -- a tall order for the Kinshasa government which is committed to recapturing lost towns.
They said the ceasefire was called to allow international aid agencies to evacuate the refugees who want to return to their original countries.
The refugees have so far refused to return to Rwanda, fearing punishment for the 1994 genocide of minority Tutsis in which many took part.
On Sunday, Rwandan government spokesman Emmanuel Ndahiro said that most of Goma was now under Tutsi rebel control, judging by the sounds of gunfire.
He also said he did not believe French intervention was acceptable, nor that the French would be able to achieve anything.
But on Monday, France proposed an international conference to examine how to restore security in eastern Zaire to allow refugees to return to their camps.
French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette told reporters the proposal was aimed at France's partners, including the United States, the European Union, the Organisation of African Unity and Canada.
"France proposes its partners, particularly the Organisation of African Unity, Europe, the United States and Canada hold without further delay a meeting to discuss how to organise possible ways of temporarily establishing security in north and south Kivu," de Charette said.
More than one million refugees, mostly Rwandan Hutus, caught in fighting between Zairean forces and Tutsi rebels backed by Rwanda's Tutsi army have fled camps and been left without food after the departure of aid organisations.
In Rwanda, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Paul Stromburg said many refugees were dying after having been without food and shelter for two weeks or more.
In Geneva on Monday, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata called for international efforts to create protected humanitarian corridors in Zaire to coax Rwandan refugees back into their homeland.
"There is now a sense of urgency. With the recent fighting, I'm desperate. I think the only way we can do this is to link up with a lot of governments and U.N. headquarters," she said.
Ogata acknowledged the difficulty of creating safe routes to lure the refugees home when they are heading deeper into Zaire, but said this was a priority to stop the conflict spreading.
"It's a question of how we set it (return corridors) up quickly, especially when the refugees are fleeing to the other direction, westward, under the attack of various fighting forces," Ogata said.
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