NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, April 22, 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7A
Airlifts to Rwandan refugees stopped by Zairian rebels
Agencies fear an exodus into forest
The Associated Press
KISANGANI, Zaire — Zairian rebels blocked aid workers from entering refugee camps yesterday, raising fears that 100,000 Rwandans, starving and terrified, might try to flee deeper into the dense tropical forest.
The rebels said they were closing off camps south of Kisangani to restore order after the slaughter of six Zairian villagers sent local residents on a rampage, looting and stoning foreign journalists and aid workers.
International agencies had suspended aid shipments because of such attacks but wanted rebel assurances that they could safely return and prepare for a planned airlift of the refugees home to Rwanda.
Instead, the rebels told them yesterday to stay away. The refugees,
dying at a rate of 60 a day from malaria, dysentery, pneumonia and cholera, have enough food to last about two days.
"We're concerned about what's happening in the camps because we've got nobody there," said Paul Stromberg, representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "We're concerned that in present circumstances, they may leave."
UNHCR planned to fly over the camps today to see whether refugees were fleeing.
The United Nations condemned recent attacks by Zairian mobs, including yesterday's, and linked them to stalling what would be the biggest refugee airlift in Africa. The United Nations wants to fly the 100,000 refugees south of Kisangani to the Rwandan border.
U. N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata met yesterday in Geneva. Ogata said the situation had worsened since Zairian mobs stoned the cars of foreign aid workers on Friday.
"Today, the military told us that we would not be allowed in the camps," Ogata said. "That is not good enough. We must have access, and we must begin the airlift."
The airlift originally was to have begun Friday, but rebels have delayed it, saying an airlift would spread disease and clog rebel-held airports.
Instead, the alliance wants trucks to take the refugees on the 375-mile drive to the border. Parts of the road are in such bad shape that extensive repairs would be needed first.
Already tense relations between Zairians and Rwandan refugees worsened yesterday, when assailants with machine guns shot and killed six villagers in their mud huts in Kasese, 15 miles south of Kisangani.
It was not known who committed the attack, but villagers claimed to hear the killers speaking the Rwandan language, Kinyarwanda, and blamed Rwandan Hutu militiamen from the refugee camps.
Asida Musalia said the attackers ordered him to go in his hut. "I heard gunshots around the village, and when I came out, I saw them run into the jungle," he said.
Nearby, a woman wailed over the bullet-riddled body of her 17-year-old son. In the next house, an elderly woman and a young girl lay dead on the mattress. The door had been forced open and shells were scattered on the ground.
After the killings, mobs of Zairians looted a World Food Program warehouse near Kasees and a trainload of food near a rebel army checkpoint about 10 miles to the south.
Opposition wants Isreali leader tried
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu tried to shore up his government and his reputation yesterday after escaping prosecution in an influence-peddling scandal, but
opposition leaders demanded that he resign and face trial.
The opposition asked Israel's Supreme Court to overrule
the prosecutors' decision not to charge Netanyahu for his role in a political ally's short-lived appointment as attorney general.
the prosecutors, wrapping up a three-month probe, said Sunday that Netanyahu's
Netanvahu
"There is no evidence because the prime minister didn't remember," said Yossi Sarid, leader of the left-wing Meretz Party, yesterday after submitting one of four appeals. "I hope that once he is before the court, it will help him refresh his memory."
The prosecution lacked the evidence to charge him with fraud and breach of trust.
actions raised bewildering questions.
But it appeared unlikely that the high court, which is to hear the four motions in early May, would overturn the decision.
Netanyahu said that he had made a mistake, but that he had not committed a crime.
He lashed out at the news media and opposition politicians, saying they had twisted facts of the case beyond recognition because they were unable to accept his victory in last May's election.
Iraq to help pilgrims home
Saddam Hussein pledges to break no-fly zone rules
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Saddam Hussein ordered his helicopters into the U.S.-patrolled no-fly zone yesterday and said he intended to fly home weary Iraqi pilgrims returning from Mecca.
Any U.S. action threatening the aircraft or the pilgrims will be met with the suitable response to deter aggression, the state-run Iraqi News Agency warned.
The United States urged Iraq to stay out of the no-fly zone or face unspecified retaliation.
"We will respond appropriately,
but we're not going to shoot down
civilian helicopters," said Mike McCurry, presidential press secretary.
Western allies set up the no-fly zone after defeating Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.
Saddam Hussein
Western forces patrol the skies over southern Iraq to protect the people from Iraqi reprisals for a failed rebellion.
The zone was extended in September to punish Hussein for sending his army into northern Iraq to support one Kurdish faction against another. It now covers an area stretching from the southern suburbs of Baghdad down to Iraq's borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The Iraqi News Agency said the helicopters would begin ferrying sick and exhausted Muslim pilgrims from the Iraqi-Saudi border. It did not say how many aircraft would be involved or give the number of the pilgrims.
By nightfall, there was no word on whether any flights had taken place.
The flight defied a U.N. ban on flights in and out of Iraq.
The decision to use helicopters to ferry the pilgrims was announced after a meeting yesterday of the Revolutionary Command Council and the leadership of the ruling Baath Party — Iraq's highest bodies.
On April 9, Hussein sent an Iraqi Airways jet carrying 104 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, site of the holiest shrine in Islam.
Bomb warnings, fear of IRA block London transportation
The Associated Press
LONDON — A string of telephoned bomb threats tied London's air, rail and road traffic in knots yesterday and momentarily distracted politicians from the national election campaign. Authorities blamed the Irish Republican Army.
Prime Minister John Major, expressing contempt for the IRA, praised the stoicism and good humor of the traveling public, which struggled all morning with citywide traffic snarls. No bombs were found.
"It is essential to take these warnings seriously," Major said. "The
IRA have murdered in the past. They will not hesitate to murder again."
No one claimed responsibility, but those who called in the threats used recognized IRA code words.
"It's a clear attempt by the IRA to disrupt the British general election" on May 1, said Tony Blair, leader of the Labor Party, which is way ahead in the polls.
In late March, Labor's Northern Ireland representative, Mo Mowlam, suggested the Sinn Fein party could be invited to join all-party talks in Northern Ireland in June if its allies in the IRA quickly restored their cease-fire, which
lasted 17 months until February 1996.
The IRA's answer was more disruption and violence: a bomb hoax that canceled the Grand National horse race on April 5, the shooting of a policewoman in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on April 10, and a bomb Friday at the railroad station in Leeds.
"Basically, west London and central London are closed," Royal Automobile Club representative Peter Brill said at midmorning. "This is going to be some of the worst traffic chaos that we have seen in London for many years, if ever."
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