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BRUSSELS, April 12 (AFP) - The Rwandan authorities have blamed United Nations negligence for the carnage sweeping Rwanda since last Thursday, the Rwandan ambassador to Belgium, Francois Ngarukiyintwali, said here Tuesday.
He quoted a note sent by the Rwandan foreign ministry to the UN Assistance Force in Rwanda accusing the UN force of lax security around Kigali airport which allowed a presidential aircraft to be shot down last Wednesday.
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira were among 12 people killed when the aircraft crashed near Kigali, reportedly after being shot down.
The crash triggered an orgy of bloodshed pitting the country's two main tribal groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis, against each other.
The Rwandan ambassador said the UN force, responsible for security at the airport, had been guilty of "inexplicable" security lapses which had allowed "criminals to shoot down the aircraft."
He quoted the note as saying that the UN forces had not been strict enough in restricting troops of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to their barracks in central Kigali before the bloodbath started.
"That is how elements of the RPF battalion were able to spread out in many areas of Kigali to sow violence, terror and death," the note said.
It also accused the UN forces of supporting the RPF rebels and of opening fire on government troops.
The ambassador said he knew nothing about reports Tuesday that the Rwandan interim government had fled into hiding as RPF rebel forces advanced on Kigali.
He was speaking at a press conference after being summoned by the Belgian foreign ministry on Monday to explain an anti-Belgian hate campaign sweeping Rwanda, allegedly orchestrated by Rwandan government circles.
The campaign, based on allegations that the Belgian government is pro-RPF, frightened the Belgian community, numbering more than 1,500, which is currently being evacuated.
Six Belgian civilians, plus 10 members of the Belgian contingent of the UN forces, have been slain in Rwanda since last Thursday.
One member of the Belgian UN contingent, a corporal, said on his return here Tuesday that the force was serving little purpose in the "real butchery" taking place in Kigali.
"There were children not 15 metres away from me being slaughtered. All we could do was watch. ... We were not allowed to intervene or to use our weapons. ... My role as a (UN) Blue Helmet is finished because I risked my life without being able to intervene," he said.
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