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ARUSHA, Tanzania, April 23 (Reuter) - Rwandan rebels on Saturday
declared a unilateral ceasefire in their war with government forces
following the deaths of an estimated 100,000 people in more than two
weeks of fighting and ethnic slaughter.
The international community sees this as a way of stopping the
massacres, so we have obliged,
Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)
secretary-general Theogene Rudasingwa said.
Rudasingwa told Reuters of the ceasefire, which is to begin at midnight
(2100 GMT) on Monday, just hours before peace talks were to start with
the government side in the north Tanzanian town of Arusha.
The United States had on Friday called on the warring sides to agree to
an immediate ceasefire and said it was prepared to help efforts to
arrange a political settlement of their dispute.
But Rudasingwa, the chief rebel delegate, doubted the government, which
independent observers blame for most of the massacres, could fulfill
its ceasefire conditions.
Human rights workers estimate that 100,000 people have been killed and
two million people displaced in fighting since President Juvenal
Habyarimana was killed in a rocket attack on his plane on April 6.
The RPF says it is in a position of strength after capturing a swath of
the north and a substantial portion of the capital.
Aid workers say the killings were continuing in southern towns. It
appeared most of the victims are from the Tutsi tribe, associated with
the RPF, or supporters of opposition parties.
Government comment was not available on the ceasefire declaration which
was signed by RPF Chairman Colonel Alexis Kanyarengwe in rebel
headquarters in northern Rwanda. U.N. officials attending the talks had
not been told of the RPF move.
Terms to the ceasefire included:
-- control of killings by government forces in their areas of control
within 96 hours of the ceasefire deadline
-- monitoring of the ceasefire by 270 U.N. observers still in Rwanda
following the cut in peacekeeping forces by the Security Council
-- negotiations on implementation of the nine-month-old peace accord
which was supposed to end the civil war and establish an all-party
transitional government
-- exclusion from peace talks of those linked to killings
-- an international tribunal to investigate and punish those
responsible for killing the president and carrying out massacres
-- joint control of Kigali airport by rebels and government forces and
creation of internationally supervised safe corridors for delivery of
aid and safe passage of civilians.
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim
welcomed the news of the RPF ceasefire declaration.
Much will depend on what happens on the ground but a ceasefire would
be an important step towards ending the carnage and mayhem,
he told
Reuters on arrival in Arusha.
On Friday Salim blasted the U.N. announcement that it was evacuating
most of its 2,500 observers and troops from the Rwandan capital Kigali
due to the resumption of fighting.
When things get worse, when things become more miserable, it is
incomprehensible to us that the U.N. presence should be reduced,
Salim
said.
A U.N. spokesman in Kigali said 1,000 peacekeepers were due to leave
the capital by Saturday night, leaving about 600 troops who would be
reduced within days to 270.
But U.N. special envoy Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh said he had been given
authority to hold back 1,000 mainly Ghanaian troops who had been
evacuated to Nairobi to send back to Kigali if a ceasefire was reached.
This is the last chance for the Rwandan people,
he said.
U.N. Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) spokesman Moctar Gueye told
reporters the U.N. was deeply concerned about the safety of 12,000
Rwandan civilians under its protection who would be defenceless if they
left.
He said the U.N. wanted agreement from the warring parties on the
handover of Kigali airport to the U.N., the burial of corpses left in
the open -- which the U.N. numbers at 20,000 in Kigali alone -- joint
RPF-government security patrols to restore order, and guarantees for
food distribution to the needy.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a medical
convoy with 20 staff had managed to get through to the embattled
Rwandan capital of Kigali from Burundi late on Friday.
A U.N. military official said small arms fire erupted in Kigali early
on Saturday but eased later.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
