Evacuation hampered by security concerns

ATTEMPTS to provide transportation for thousands of Rwandan refugees streaming out of eastern Zaire are being hampered by concerns for the security of aid agency staff.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees yesterday told aid agencies it could not guarantee the safety of their staff on the road from Goma to Sake and beyond.

This road was blocked yesterday by Tutsi rebels, who prevented attempts by aid workers to rescue exhausted refugees stranded at Minova, 20 km beyond Sake. The refugees, some of them on the move for up to two months, had to continue walking to a point 25 km further on, from where transportation to the border was available.

Earlier in the week, the UNHCR had received assurances of safe passage from the Tutsi rebels in eastern Zaire and from the Mai Mai, an armed group controlling the road into the mountains beyond Sake. However, on Thursday, shooting broke out on the road and Mai Mai troops robbed passing aid workers and journalists.

The Mai Mai, which belong to the Hunde ethnic group, recently expressed support for the Tutsi rebels, though the two groups are traditionally enemies. Their soldiers say that bullets fired at them will turn to water ("Mai" means water, "Mai Mai" transparent).

The UNHCR believes it has located up to 160,000 people, possibly refugees, in the forests above Kilungo, 12 km south of Minova. However, the area is considered too dangerous for non military personnel to enter.

Late on Thursday evening, up to 15,000 people were reported to be on the road between Minova and Sake, with 12,000 in Sake itself. The average flow over the border with Rwanda has varied between 6,000 and 12,000 in recent days.

Apart from about 20,000 refugees thought to be near the border at Bukavu, at the southern end of Lake Kivu, no other large groups of refugees are now unaccounted for. This appears to show that the UNHCR grossly over estimated by more than 500,000 the total number of refugees.

Clear skies yesterday morning enabled US military reconnaissance planes flying out of Entebbe in Uganda to continue their aerial search for more refugees further west. Bad weather in the area over previous days had hampered these efforts.

Both the UNHCR and aid agencies say they are opposed to Canadian proposals to drop food parcels to refugees further east in Zaire. They claim that this food is likely to end up in military hands. Already on Thursday, Tutsi rebel troops could be seen travelling through Sake in jeeps laden with grain from the UN and the EU which was intended for refugees.

In addition aid workers point out that refugees have on occasion been killed by falling food pallets when this was tried in Sudan and Iraq.

Although the latest batches of refugees emerging from the forests appear to be in good health, many have been walking for weeks. A large number came up from Bukavu, only to be pushed further east by fighting in the area along Lake Kivu. Their arduous trek has led to many of the pregnant women giving birth prematurely.

. Canada yesterday announced that 20 countries had formed a coalition, under Canadian Lieut Gen Maurice Baril, to bring humanitarian aid to central Africa and that preparations had begun for an airdrop.