Citation
KIGALI, April 13 (Reuter) - Belgian paratroopers came under fire in the
Rwandan capital on Wednesday as they evacuated the last foreigners from
the central African city ravaged by days of tribal bloodshed.
Witnesses said unidentified gunmen in the rundown district of
Nyamirambo attacked a Belgian convoy searching for a handful of
westerners still trapped in Kigali.
The Belgian troops returned fire before racing out across the area's
potholed, sandy streets. No-one on the convoy was injured.
Nyamirambo was one of the areas of heavy fighting earlier in the day
between infiltrating rebels of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) and
regular army soldiers.
As night fell over the blood-soaked capital, gangs of frightened Hutu
tribesmen, drunk on banana beer, erected more roadblocks across the
city and threatened to kill anyone they did not know or recognise,
including government soldiers.
Mass hysteria is sweeping the town, they are sure the RPF will kill
them. There is no control,
said Reuter correspondent Peter Smerdon.
The Belgian contingent toured the city and picked up more than 40
expatriates, including 12 Americans and 15 Poles, and escorted them to
the international airport on the edge of the rambling capital.
Residents said heavy fighting erupted at dawn, but died down again
later in the day. Rwandan rebels exchanged artillery, mortar and cannon
fire with government forces while thousands of refugees poured out of
the city.
Army helicopter gunships pounded rebels advancing on the headquarters
of the paramilitary gendarmarie at Kacyiru in the northeast of the
capital, where thousands of people have died in tribal warfare since
the president was killed last week.
Much of the southern part of the city is under our control. In the
north, we are still on the outskirts, but not in the city itself,
RPF
spokesman Wilson Rutayisire told Reuters.
He rejected reports of a ceasefire call from regular army units.
How can we agree to that while they are still killing people?,
he
said.
He said fleeing troops of the Hutu-dominated army were killing people,
mainly members of the minority Tutsi tribe, as they passed through the
southern areas of Changugu, Butare, and Kibungo.
RPF forces have crept into the city from outlying districts to
reinforce a 600-strong contingent, stranded in the city under a
shattered peace accord.
Western troops still in the capital after organising an evacuation of
hundreds of foreigners said government forces were demoralised and
ill-disciplined and had little hope of repulsing the advance.
The RPF are advancing, they infiltrate at night, particularly around
dawn, fight with government troops and then move on. They are good
infantry, they seem very well trained,
said Belgian paratroop
commander Captain Christophe Onraet.
He said it was very difficult to say where the demarcation lines
between rebel and government forces were, but said the RPF fighters
appeared to have slipped through the city's southern defence lines.
Captain Ronny Verneers, commander of 90 Belgian paratroopers at the
French school -- main assembly point for evacuees -- said he expected
to receive orders to pull back to the airport by Thursday morning.
Belgium wants all its nationals out of the battered capital before a
deadline from advancing rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)
runs out. But it was not clear if the ultimatum expires Wednesday or
Thursday night.
The advancing rebels aim to take over a city bathed in the blood of
thousands slaughtered in a tribal bloodbath sparked by last Wednesday's
killing of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana.
Thousands of Rwandans were reported to be fleeing the country to
neighbouring states. One journalist said she saw an eight-mile (13-km)
river of people heading out of the capital.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
