Citation
AMSTERDAM, April 9 (Reuter) - Dutch citizens living in Rwanda are to be
included in Belgian operations to protect and evacuate foreigners as
the central African state slides towards civil war, the foreign
ministry said on Saturday.
We are in contact with Belgium and we have agreed that Dutch citizens
staying in Rwanda can be taken into the programme for Belgian
citizens,
a spokesman said.
Belgium has sent an advance detachment of crack paratroops, including
eight C-130 transport planes packed with military equipment, to Kigali,
the capital of its former colony.
The spokesman said a final decision to evacuate Dutch nationals had not
yet been taken.
Whether it involves security measures by the Belgian military or a
real evacuation has yet to be seen,
he said.
One Dutch Hercules C-130 plane with a combined Dutch and Belgian crew
has also departed from a Belgian airbase for Rwanda, the spokesman
said.
The foreign ministry estimates around 100 Dutch citizens live in
Rwanda, around 30 of them in Kigali.
The United States, France and Germany have also said they are preparing
to evacuate their citizens from the tiny African country, which has
been swept by an orgy of tribal blood-letting since the presidents of
Burundi and Rwanda were killed in a rocket attack on their plane on
Wednesday.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
