Citation
MIYOVE, Rwanda, April 11 (Reuter) - Rwandan rebels intend to fight their way into the capital, Kigali, to halt a rampage of killing by government troops there, their commander said.
``No more killing will be tolerated and we have rejected the government,'' said Major-General Paul Kagame, military chief of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), referring to an interim government announced by assassinated President Juvenal Habyarimana's supporters.
Kagame told Reuters on Sunday that two battalions of 600 fighters each were battling towards Kigali to reinforce a rebel battalion already there.
About 600 RPF guerrillas have been based in Kigali since December under a peace accord that fell apart when Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed last Wednesday in a rocket attack on their plane.
Kagame said eight RPF fighters were killed and 20 wounded in fighting with Hutu government troops who went on a killing spree in Kigali following Habyarimana's death.
Many thousands of people were killed in a renewal of the long-standing conflict between Rwanda's majority Hutu and minority Tutsi tribes.
Kagame said extra reinforcements would be sent to the capital if they were needed. Asked if the 20,000-strong RPF intended to move a major force towards Kigali, he said: ``Read between the lines and you will read the answer.''
He said RPF forces aimed to restore order in the capital and track down those responsible for the killing of thousands of people in the streets of Kigali.
Asked about a temporary ceasefire announced on Saturday by the commander of Belgian U.N. forces in Kigali, Kagame said: ``Whatever arrangement there is has been limited in time.''
He added: ``That (ceasefire) may be an arrangement worked out by our battalion commander in Kigali and is intended to facilitate the evacuation of foreigners and to allow the rescue of those injured during the fighting.''
In northern Rwanda, rebel forces and government troops pounded each other's hilltop positions with mortar bombs and heavy machine guns for a second successive day.
Kagame, interviewed as explosions echoed in the valleys near the town of Byumba about 50 km (30 miles) north of Kigali, said the rebels had already taken a significant amount of territory.
Carloads of young rebels could be seen moving through hillside villages which, until last week, were part of a United Nations demilitarised zone.
Kagame said RPF fighters had cut the road between Kigali and the northwestern garrison town of Ruhengeri and had nearly encircled several other key government positions.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
