Citation
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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE
37S _1410CT04 REVIEW AUTHORITY:
; : HARRY R. MELONE
ICLAS 8A DATE/CASE ID: 29 JAN 2002 199500391
Rwanda: Battlefront ‘Stabilized’: Official Denies Arrests
30410171590 Paris AFP in French 1325 GMT 4 Oct 90
[Text]. Nairobi, 4 Oct (AFP) -- The battlefront between the
rebels from northeastern Rwanda and the regular Rwandan Army was
today stabilized around 70 km from Kigali, the Rwandan capital,
iere the authorities have been waiting for an intervention from
Belgium. According to diplomats, the former colonial power
reportedly agreed to reply favorably to Rwanda’s intervention
request on Tuesday night.
(In Brussels, the private television network RTL-TVI has
anounced that between 150 and 300 paratroopers of the 2 Commando
battalion are preparing to leave for Rwanda.) .
However, it is not known what mission these soldiers will be
asked to undertake -- whether they will take an active part in the
battle against the antigovernment forces led by “Commander Fred", or
will only be sent to protect the more than 1,600 Belgians living in
the "country of 1,001 hills." .
In Kigali, the situation is apparently calm, several sources —
reported this morning. As for the front, it was stabilized around
the Gatsibo-Gabiro line, some 70 km northeast of Kigali, which the
rebels are intent on taking, according to diplomats contacted in
Nairobi.
According to official Rwandan sources, the president, Major
general Juvenal Habyarimana, has returned to Kigali, while the
Rwandan ambassadors to Burundi and Tanzania have been summoned by
the authorities of those countries.
In Bujumbura, the Rwandan ambassador was received by the head of
state, Major Pierre Buyoya, who affirmed to him that nobody capable
... helping “Commander Fred’s" men in southern Rwanda has crossed the
Burundi-Rwanda border. According to Burundian sources, the border
as been completely closed, especially to prevent Rwandan refugees
from penetrating into Burundi.
Diplomatic sources also reported that the battles in northeastern
Rwanda will soon have a negative impact on Burundi’s economy.
Bujumbura is in fact completely dependent for its supplies on the
northern corridor" which passes through Rwanda, Uganda, and across
Kenya to the Port of Mombasa. In Dar es Salaam, Ambassador Thomas.
unyanezi has been summoned by the permanent secretary of the
59-96-0497 1/1 ~ UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
Tanzanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ashur Abbas. Mr. Abbas
... said to have complained about a bombing attack on Tuesday
against a group of Rwandan refugees in Tanzania by an aircraft of
xnown origin, but which was probably Rwandan,-it- has been learned
om a very reliable source.
In Kigali, the permanent secretary of the Rwandan Ministry of
Defense, Colonel Leonidas Rusatira, has denied that there have been
systematic arrests of Tutsis in the capital. Diplomatic sources had
indicated that a wave of arrests affecting politicians and military
personnel of the Tutsi ethnic group had begun in Kigali following
the offensive of Fred Rwigyema’s troops. Similar rumors however
persisted in Kigali today, according to informed sources.
Col. Rusatira also told AFP that no foreign mercenary was present
in the ranks of the rebels. The only arrests concern persons moving
out during the curfew hours and who are being released
immediately, said the permanent secretary of the Defense Ministry.
1. Rusatira estimated the number of rebels, who are trying to
overthrow the regime of President Juvenal Habyarimana, which has
been in power since 1973, at 10,000.
oct 1919z2 cw
UNCLASSIFIED
