Edition: U.S. / Global

Zaire Troops Surround Rwanda Refugee Camp in Step to Shut It

Published: February 14, 1996

Zairian troops surrounded a large camp of Rwandan refugees early today, beginning what United Nations officials described as an intensive campaign to persuade 190,000 Hutu refugees from Rwanda to return home.

A small Zairian force of about 250 soldiers from a border-patrol unit known as the Civil Guard surrounded the sprawling camp at 6 A.M., officials said. The lightly armed men ringed the smoky tent city like sentries. United Nations officials said the refugees looked on calmly as the soldiers took their positions.

The move was part of a new effort by Zaire to close the 40 Rwandan refugee camps on its soil by cutting them off from the surrounding community. The plan was agreed to in December at a meeting in Geneva between Zaire, the United Nations and officials from the Tutsi-led Government in Rwanda.

"Everything is calm," Peter Kessler, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said today in Goma. "The refugees are watching the operation. We would hope that some refugees that feel willing would begin to walk toward the frontier."

Mr. Kessler said other Zairian troops who are being paid by the United Nations to police the camps took up positions around the camp's warehouses, distribution centers, and hospitals at about 3 A.M. to prevent looting should the situation become violent.

The camp, one of five near Goma, is built on an inhospitable plain of volcanic rock only a mile from the Rwandan border, in the shadow of three cloud-shrouded volcanoes, famous as the last home of the mountain gorilla. A few refugees have crossed the border illegally into Rwanda and returned, aid workers say, so it is hoped that large groups will now choose to move en masse through the pass.

The troops are intended to impose what amounts to an economic embargo, keeping refugees from trading in the nearby town of Goma and limiting the aid they receive to the bare essentials -- food, water and medical supplies.

Zaire promised the United Nations that no force would be used against the refugees and that only those who volunteer to go home will be escorted to the border. The idea, they say, is to make life uncomfortable in the camps, where the refugees have been able to supplement their meager food supplies by working or trading in nearby communities.

But there is a danger the operation could erupt in violence if Hutu militias in the camps decide to resist the embargo or if the Zairian commanders lose control over their troops, Western relief officials say.

The presence of the troops today did not persuade many refugees to leave. All day, most clung defiantly to their makeshift huts, waiting for the army's next move. By evening, only 55 people from the Goma region had chosen to board buses and return to Rwanda, United Nations officials said. No violence was reported, though the atmosphere was tense.

Relief workers said they expected some refugees to slip away under cover of darkness. "The camps are not hermetically sealed," said one official. "The people who fear going back to Rwanda will probably sneak off into the night."

The Hutu refugees first flooded into Goma in July 1994, fleeing the Tutsi rebel army that took over the tiny Central African country and halted an organized massacre of at least 500,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu.

The refugees include hundreds of thousands of Hutu who took part in the massacres. Many of the refugees living in Zaire, especially young men, fear retribution from the Tutsi-led Rwanda Army if they return.