Citation
MULINDI, Rwanda, April 9 (Reuter) - Rwandan rebels rejected a new
interim government and said on Saturday troops would attack the capital
where violence erupted after the president was killed.
We cannot accept the new president. He is among those who are linked
to the murder of civilians in Kigali,
Major-General Paul Kagame,
leader of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), said after Venat
Sindikubwabo replaced Juvenal Habyarimana, killed on Wednesday in a
rocket attack on his plane.
Reuters reporters with RPF rebels 75 kms (48 miles) north of the
capital reported heavy fighting had broken out across a frontline which
snakes through the north and northeast of the remote central African
state.
Heavy shelling started early this morning, the rebels are now
advancing on three fronts,
reporter Buchizya Mseteka told Reuters in
Nairobi by satellite telephone from rebel headquarters in Mulindi.
He said the sound of heavy artillery pierced the early morning air of
the mountainous region, known to the outside world as one of the last
homes of the rare mountain gorilla.
Anyone who attempts to stop them is our enemy. We are moving on
Kigali,
Kagame told reporters at the bush camp. Any government forces
that want to join us are free to do so.
Kagame said his troops had made an irreversible decision to fight a
clique he identified as two political parties close to the slain
Habyarimana and to end bloodshed during which relief workers say
several thousand people were killed.
Sindikubwabo, formerly parliament speaker, was a close ally of
Habyarimana.
Top RPF official Patrick Mazimhaka said the heaviest fighting was
raging at Byumba, some 50 kms (35 miles) north of Kigali.
He added that the rebels wanted to restore a transitional government in
Rwanda, under a peace agreement reached in Tanzania last year, and
would not let the anarchy which has reigned in Kigali for the past few
days to go unpunished.
The installation of transitional institutions under that accord has
been put back five times since last December.
Sindikubwabo's prime minister, Jean Kambanda, is from a faction of the
splintered opposition Democratic and Republican Movement (MDR)
dominated by the majority Hutu tribe. It opposes any cooperation with
the RPF, dominated by the minority Tutsi.
The RPF launched its rebellion from neighbouring Uganda in 1990 with a
force of about 10,000 fighters. It fought its way almost to Kigali
until it was repulsed by Rwandan troops reinforced by soldiers from
Zaire, and later joined in peace talks.
In an earlier broadcast on rebel radio, Kagame said anyone standing in
the RPF's way would be considered an accomplice and dealt with
accordingly.
Mazimhaka said he rebels had no objections to French, Belgian or
American forces flying into Rwanda to rescue their nationals.
French forces on an evacuation mission landed in Kigali and headed
downtown early on Saturday.
The RPF has about 600 men in Kigali and the announcement on Saturday
morning seemed to give a clear signal of an RPF move on the capital
from its stronghold in the north of the country.
A U.N. peacekeeping force, stationed in Rwanda to monitor a derailed
peace accord between rebels and government forces, said late on Friday
the security situation was still precarious
.
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) has appealed to both the
RPF and government forces to cease hostilies and act to rescue the
peace process.
UNAMIR said in a statement that the RPF rebels had captured several
positions previously held by an elite presidential guard loyal to
Habyarimana, a Hutu in power for more than 20 years.
Habyarimana died with Cyprien Ntaryamira, 38-year-old president of
neighbouring Burundi, when a plane bringing them back from regional
peace talks in Tanzania was hit by a rocket on Wednesday night.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
