O'Shea makes plea for refugees

THE Government and international community have been urged to act to prevent Christmas being a time of "starvation, misery and death" for thousands of Rwandan refugees.

The call came from Mr John O'Shea, director of Goal, who said yesterday that the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, should use his influence at EU and UN level to direct aid to the refugees.

Mr O'Shea called on the international community to "finally accept" the existence of large numbers of Rwandan refugees still in the forests of eastern Zaire. It was "ludicrous and a scandal" to accept the assertion of the Rwandan government that the refugees do not exist, he said.

"The fact is that a large number of refugees between 500,000 and 700,000 are trapped in the jungles and forests of eastern Zaire. Their physical condition is appalling."

Mr O'Shea claimed the Rwandan government was "doing nothing" to help the refugees. "That alone should tell Mr Spring something about their attitude and the agenda vis-a-vis the Hutu population," he said.

More than 1 million refugees have returned to Rwanda from camps in Zaire and Tanzania in the past six weeks. Other large groups are still in Zaire, but international agencies have disagreed on the numbers involved and their exact whereabouts.