Citation
KIGALI, April 7 (Reuter) - The presidents of neighbouring Rwanda and
Burundi were killed in a rocket attack that destroyed their plane on
Wednesday as they flew back together from regional peace talks.
The French-built Rwandan presidential Mystere-Falcon jet was set ablaze
as it approached the airport in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
returning from a peace summit in Tanzania, Rwandan officials said.
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, 57, and Burundi President
Cyprien Ntaryamira, 38, leaders of countries racked by tribal friction,
died along with an unknown number of officials.
Diplomats said the killing of the two both heads of state would throw
both Rwanda and Burundi, ravaged by conflict between their Hutu
majorities and Tutsi minorities, into political chaos and might spark
more slaughter.
The United Nations announced in New York the deaths of the two
presidents and the Security Council stood for one minute in silent
tribute.
Rwanda's U.N. envoy described the attack as assassination.
Diplomats said at least one rocket hit the plane, which was set ablaze
and crashed before burning up. There were believed to be no survivors.
Residents in the centre of Kigali, about 15 km (10 miles) west of the
airport, said they heard several very loud explosions followed by
sporadic shooting and a small plane could be heard circling the
airport, apparently unable to land.
It is a terrible, terrible catastrophe for both countries at this very
dangerous time,
a Western diplomat in Burundi's capital Bujumbura
said. Anything could happen.
But he added that Bujumbura was quiet
immediately following the news.
Habyarimana, a Hutu, took power in Rwanda in a coup in 1973 and was
blamed by Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels for
repeated delays since December in the formation of a new government and
parliament to end three years of civil war.
Ntaryamira, 38, was elected in January to succeed Burundi's first Hutu
president, Melchior Ndadaye, who was killed by renegade troops from the
Tutsi-dominated army in a failed coup in October.
Ndadaye's murder unleashed a wave of Hutu-Tutsi slaughter throughout
Burundi in which up to 50,000 people were killed.
In New York, United Nations Under-Secretary-General Chinmaya Gharekhan
said the plane carrying crashed at Kigali airport and both presidents
lost their lives
.
Gharekhan said Rwanda's U.N. ambassador, Jean Damascene Bizimana, told
Security Council members that it was not an accident. It was an
assassination. There was rocket fire at the plane...
Burundian Parliament President Sylvestre Ntibantuganya made a brief
address to the nation on television saying he had learned the plane
carrying both presidents had had problems and a crisis committee had
been formed to investigate.
He appealed for calm but gave no details on the fate of the presidents.
Under the Burundian constitution, the head of parliament becomes acting
head of state in the event of the president's death.
The U.N. Security Council, of which Rwanda is a member, paid tribute to
both presidents by standing in a moment of silence.
Security Council President Colin Keating said the two leaders served
their respective countries with great dedication and they lost their
lives in pursuit of their efforts to restore peace to Burundi and
Rwanda
.
At the peace meeting both men attended in the Tanzanian capital of Dar
Es Salaam earlier on Wednesday, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda agreed to
send their foreign ministers to Burundi to help rebuild popular
confidence in Ntaryamira's government.
The African leaders also called for reforms to the Burundian army which
diplomats said were essential for peace.
Ntaryamira told the Dar Es Salaam conference that he was grateful for
neighbouring countries sheltering 800,000 Burundi refugees from the
tribal fighting since the killing of Ndadaye.
The United Nations says a total of 375,000 Burundians are registered as
refugees in Zaire, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Burundi is bleeding. I am aware it hurts your economies. Still, we
need your help.
said Ntaryamira.
On Rwanda, the African leaders said they were concerned at delays since
December in forming transitional institutions as agreed in the northern
Tanzanian town of Arusha last August.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday renewed the mandate for
peacekeeping forces for Rwanda for four months but threatened to pull
them out unless the Arusha peace accords were honoured.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
