ZAIRE'S rebel leader, Mr Laurent Kabila, yesterday gave the United Nations 60 days to repatriate all Rwandan Hutu refugees in Zaire or he would do it himself.
"This has gone on for too long and if it is not completed, we will do it ourselves," he told a news conference after an afternoon of meetings with senior UN and European Union officials. "I have given them 60 days to get this problem sorted out. It must be done."
Mr Kabila strenuously denied his forces were responsible for attacking more than 50,000 refugees and causing their flight last week from makeshift camps about 35 km south of Kisangani.
He said he would be seeking a personal apology from the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, who on Thursday described the fate of the refugees as "slow extermination".
Mr Kabila said: "The United Nations has made promises it has not kept and Kofi Annan must come here himself to apologise."
He claimed he had been assured by UN officials in Kisangani that nothing they had reported to their headquarters should have prompted Mr Annan's comments.
Yesterday's ultimatum comes six days after rebel authorities began a lock out of the area containing the refugee camps and stopped aid organisations or journalists from entering. When UN officials managed to visit the camps on Wednesday, they found more than 50,000 inhabitants had fled in haste. Airsweeps failed to find them.
Some 50 refugees who made their way to Kisangani on Saturday told of the camp being surrounded on Tuesday by soldiers and then being attacked by villagers with axes and machetes.
Some of them were among 33 refugees who were airlifted from Kisangani to Kigali yesterday afternoon, the first such evacuation since the UN approved an unprecedented air evacuation earlier this month.
UN officials said a great deal of work still had to be done to successfully repatriate those remaining, but they were optimistic following assurances from Mr Kabila.
Mr Kabila said his forces knew where the bulk of the refugees from Kasese camp had fled to and he would help the UN locate them.
Paul Cullen, Development Correspondent, adds: Concern's director in eastern Zaire, Mr Dominic McSorley, said the mood among relief agencies had lifted after yesterday's meetings. "We're all looking forward to an early evacuation of the refugees and the opportunity to search for those who are missing," he said from Kisangani.
Concern staff are part of a UNICEF convoy travelling today to Ubundu searching for refugees who fled into the bush. Mr McSorley said many of the refugees arriving in Kisangani say they have witnessed killings.
Concern is one of eight agencies which has been granted permission by the rebels to operate in the city.