Citation
GENEVA, April 8 (Reuter) - U.N. secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali
said on Friday that he had asked his special representitive in Rwanda
to take steps to guarantee security throughout the country and
especially in the capital.
In a statement issued by his spokeswoman in Geneva, he also said he was
preparing an urgent report for the Security Council on measures to
protect the 2,439 U.N. personnel and their dependents now in Rwanda.
Boutros-Ghali has been in touch with the warring tribes and with his
special representative, Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh, a former foreign
minister of Cameroon named to the top U.N. post in Kigali last
November, the statement said.
The secretary-general has been in touch with all parties concerned and
his special representative in Kigali. He asked him to take all measures
immediately to guarantee security throughout the country and
particularly in Kigali,
it said.
The secretary general is urgently preparing a report to the Security
Council on the measures to take so as to protect the U.N. personnel in
Rwanda.
U.N. sources said any decision on evacuating U.N. staff from Rwanda
would be taken directly by Boutros-Ghali, who arrived in Geneva on
Thursday for a five-day visit.
He deplored the deaths on Thursday of Rwanda's Prime Minister Agatha
Uwilingiyimana as well as the 10 Belgians serving as U.N. peacekeepers
who were assigned to guard her.
The flags at the U.N. European headquarters flew at half-mast on Friday
in tribute to the Belgian blue helmets.
The U.N. Security Council last week renewed for four months the mandate
of the 2,131 peacekeepers it now has in Rwanda, a former Belgian
colony.
There are also 92 civilian staff working for the U.N. Mission for
Assistance to Rwanda, as well as 102 employees of other U.N. agencies
and their 114 dependents, according to a list provided by a U.N.
spokeswoman in Geneva.
Many of the U.N. staff in Rwanda work in refugee camps taking care of
people who fled Burundi when tribal massacres followed a coup attempt
last October.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
