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By Catherine Bond in Kigali.
Fierce fighting continued in the Rwandan capital over the weekend
spreading to the city centre and hindering efforts by United Nations
forces to foster negotiations between Tutsi-led rebels and an army of
the country's majority Hutu tribe.
Witnesses said Rwandan soldiers had hacked to death civilians who had
been tied up then butchered. Some victims were being left to plead for
their lives for up to half and hour before being shot dead, and women
were being raped then killed.
The situation polarised further as the army announced the appointment
of a new chief of staff, General Augustin Bizimungu, to succeed the
former chief of staff who had died with President Habyarimana 12 days
ago in a suspicious plane crash which also killed the newly appointed
Hutu president of neighbouring Burundi.
At their headquarters in the city's parliament building, senior members
of the Rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) said they were expecting
reinforcements which were converging on the capital. A spokesman
claimed that General Bizimungu was a Hutu extremist who was opposed to
sharing power with the Tutsi.
A Belgian military officer who left Kigali yesterday said both warring
factions had agreed that the airport should be a neutral zone under UN
control. A rebel spokesman confirmed that on Friday they had shelled
the airport where a contingent of Ghanaian troops would take over to
allow the Belgians to begin withdrawing tomorrow. The action, the
spokesman added, had been taken in response to a rocket attack aimed at
the rebels by a Rwandan army unit.
Willy Claes, the Belgian Foreign Minister, said reports of the rebel
attack on the airport had reached Brussels. The decision to withdraw
its 400 peacekeepers from the 2,500-strong UN force had been taken
after the presidential guard had killed ten Belgian soldiers who had
been protecting Agathe Uwilingiyamana, the Prime Minister.
The rebels have listed more than 20 conditions they want met before
they will negotiate with the army, including the dismantling of the
1,000-strong presidential guard which they blame for initiating the
slaughter in the capital in which about 20,000 people are believed to
have died in less than two weeks.
More than 15,000 refugees from the hill-to-hill fighting around the
city are taking shelter in a football stadium and a hospital, both of
which are guarded by UN troops from Bangladesh.
