ZAIRE: KISANGANI: RWANDAN HUTU REFUGEES WAIT TO BE AIRLIFTED HOME скачать в хорошем качестве

ZAIRE: KISANGANI: RWANDAN HUTU REFUGEES WAIT TO BE AIRLIFTED HOME

(4 May 1997) English/Nat At least 100 Rwandan Hutus were killed and 50 injured late on Sunday when panic erupted on a train packed with thousands of refugees hoping to be airlifted home from central Zaire. A U-N official said the cause of the tragedy was not immediately clear, but that victims appeared to have been trampled or had suffocated. Rebel forces in control of the Kisangani area have been packing all the refugees they can find onto trains and dumping them on aid workers at a transit camp, where the United Nations is rushing to fly the Rwandans home. The plan is to airlift 2-thousand refugees a day. In this special report APTV examines how aid organisations are coping with the two- month evacuation deadline set by the rebels. For tens of thousands of Rwandan refugees marooned in the forests of Zaire, the agony may soon be over. On the move since 1994 when they fled Rwanda, the refugees have become embroiled in the civil war convulsing Zaire. Memories of horror are fresh - many only recently escaped attacks by Zairian rebel soldiers and machete-wielding villagers that drove those who could run back into the jungle. Now the operation to repatriate them seems to be gathering pace. International aid organisations are pressing ahead with a transit programme - in spite of sporadic downpours and fuel shortages. They aim to move 2-thousand refugees daily from makeshift forest camps to transit centres near the main town of Kisangani. Rebel soldiers grudgingly co-operate with the operation, herding hundreds onto trains. Aid workers are doubling efforts to establish an infrastructure to deal with the influx. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Today, we are looking at a second site for a transit centre. We have another train coming up. We will continue to put people here in Kisangani, to bring them out from Biaro refugee camp as the conditions here can be made better than they are at Kilometre 41. And that way we will have a lot of people near to the airport so that when we are able to get more people out, more planes here to Kisangani, we will be able to catch up." SUPER CAPTION: Paul Stromberg, UNHCR representative But the operation is a fight against time on two fronts. Conditions in the forest camps are appalling and deteriorating. Disease is rife and rebel forces are reportedly preventing aid officials from setting up clinics. Sixty refugees died overnight in Biaro camp and hundreds more stand at risk unless medical facilities are improved. Equally pressing is the rebel deadline. Many of their soldiers are ethnic Tutsis - enemies of the Hutu refugees. Rebel leader Laurent Kabila has given aid officials two months to complete the evacuation of an estimated 80-thousand people. Even at the planned rate of 2-thousand a day - a figure currently yet to be achieved - the sums don't add up. But for those preparing to board planes back home, none of that matters any more. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Yes, I am very happy to be going home. Because my parents live there in Rwanda and there is my family." SUPER CAPTION: Refugee There may be fewer refugees to be airlifted out. Of the estimate 80-thousand, the vast majority have yet to be accounted for. Tens of thousands are still thought to be hiding in the jungle after attacks on camps. No one knows how many were killed. Though the allegations are denied by the rebels, talk of mass graves in the forest is widespread. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...