IT was absolutely essential that relief workers be sent in to the forest in eastern Zaire to try to find refugee children who were wandering hungry, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Joan Burton, told the Dail Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Ms Burton, who returned yesterday from an EU development ministers' troika visit to Rwanda and Zaire, said an overwhelming number of people was facing death in the area. She stressed that a UN force should be deployed as quickly as possible to assist and protect a large scale humanitarian operation which would be the key to saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
Referring to the group of Hutu refugees attempting to return to Rwanda from Zaire which she had encountered on Tuesday, Ms Burton said the only children were babies on their mothers backs. They were told that the older children had been left behind in the forest and were now wandering, hungry and with little hope.
"It's the end of the 20th century. We have the technology. It's an enormous challenge to find these children as quickly as possible, but one we must take up if we have any belief in humanity in us", she said.
The Minister said she was in favour of a rapid delivery of urgent relief through the eastern side similar to the operation carried out some years ago in southern Sudan.
However, the Zairean government wanted all relief to go through Kinshasa, but she considered this impractical and critical to the saving of hundreds of thousands of lives.
Ms Burton emphasised the importance of speed in deploying a UN force and a relief operation. She also stressed the need for a mechanism to allow those refugees willing to return to Rwanda to do so.
Ms Burton said the atmosphere in Kinshasa was tense. Zaire gave the impression of a drift towards breakdown and the electoral commission's proposals for "free and fair" elections next year seemed to be a recipe for disaster, not just for Zaire but for a large part of Africa.
She added that the present thinking on the UN force was that it be composed of one third North American troops with one third European and one third African. She believed it important that it be both French speaking and English speaking with the majority African, and that it be a peace enforcing contingent because this had been agreed by Kinshasa.
Ms Burton added the emphasis had to be on a neutral force in order to get access. Countries that had a colonial history might have to step back from central involvement.
The committee chairman, Mr Pat Gallagher congratulated Mr Mark Brennock of the Irish Times for his reports from the area. He also welcomed the newspaper's decision to appoint Mr Paul Cullen as Development Correspondent.