Kibeho: The Situation Isn't As Trouble-free As First Described

The next day, April 19, 1995, I remained in Nairobi. But in Rwanda, UN authorities were scrambling to help relocate some 100 thousand displaced Rwandans after troops ordered their camp in southwestern Rwanda closed. The effort, though, was endangered by new allegations that Rwandan troops had shot and killed civilians in the same part of the country in retaliation for a recent guerrilla attack. Suddenly things no longer seemed as trouble-free as UN officials originally claimed.

The UN Special Representative to Rwanda, Shaharyar Khan, says a massive operation is being mounted by UN forces and relief workers in conjunction with Rwandan authorities to transfer the displaced to their homes elsewhere in the country.

The action comes after government troops surrounded the sprawling Kibeho camp in southwestern Rwanda early Tuesday (4/18/1995), firing shots in the air and triggering a panic in which a UN spokesman says 10 people were trampled to death.

But spokesman Ismael Diallo says in a telephone interview from Kigali that no violence was directed against the refugees, all of them members of the Hutu ethnic community. He also says Rwandan military officials assured them their security would be ensured during their return journeys and that transportation and relief supplies would be provided.

UN sources say the operation will take many days and is likely to be followed by similar transfers of refugees from other camps in southwestern Rwanda. The government wants all the camps closed because it considers them havens for Hutu extremists responsible for last year's massacres of ethnic Tutsi. Government authorities also suspect the camps are hiding places for weapons used in extremist attacks on troops and civilians.

UN spokesman Dillo says Rwandan troops are alleged to have killed 16 civilians in retaliation for one such guerrilla attack near the southwestern town of Cyangugu last Friday (4/14/1995).

“The killings apparently took place after eight unknown persons are said to have attacked two RPA soldiers at about 11 AM the same morning, killing one RPA soldier and wounding the other. Between one PM and three PM that day approximately 20 RPA soldiers reportedly came to the area and rounded up 17 men, all local civilians. The men were brought to the banks of the Rubyiro river where they were shot. All of the men died with the exception of one who feigned death and later made his way to the nearby hospital for treatment of his injuries.”

Mr. Diallo says UN authorities view the incident with great concern and have taken up the matter with Rwandan officials. So far there has been no response. A Rwandan military spokesman, asked about the incident, said he knew nothing about the alleged civilian killings, but confirmed one soldier was killed and another wounded by attackers.

The government has in the past acknowledged some of the country's predominantly Tutsi troops have engaged in reprisal killings of Hutu. But officials have called such incidents isolated and say those soldiers involved have been disciplined.