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Exodus prompts U.S. to rethink aid mission
Refugees overwhelm Zaire-Rwanda border
November 16, 1996
Web posted at: 8:15 p.m. EST (0115 GMT)In this story:
GOMA, Zaire (CNN) -- Only days after promising to send troops to aid starving refugees in Central Africa, the United States says it may reconsider its planned mission to Zaire. (39 sec. /1.5M QuickTime movie)
"There have been some very interesting and positive developments in Zaire in the last two days," said U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry, referring to an exodus of refugees from camps in Zaire to their home in Rwanda.
Zaire Image Gallery
"It is possible that our plan, the allied plan, will be modified. If this trend continues it will substantially change the nature of that need." (27 sec. /320K AIFF or WAV sound)
Perry said he is waiting to hear from a U.S. team, now in the region, that is charged with evaluating the need for troops. Some 20 nations under United Nations auspices have pledged to support a mission to aid an estimated one million refugees in Rwanda.
Breakdown of multi-national forces
The United States has offered to send 1,000 troops to Goma and several thousand other support personnel to countries neighboring Zaire to help feed refugees and help them to return home. (21 sec. /832K QuickTime movie)
Landscape altered
The landscape of Central Africa has altered drastically in the past two days. An estimated 200,000 mostly Hutu refugees have returned to their homeland in Rwanda as part of a massive exodus from Zaire that began this weekend, and an estimated 700,000 are on the move.
"The road of death is now a road of hope," said Ray Wilkinson, of the U.N. refugee agency, adding that most of those who had returned appeared in good shape mentally and physically.
Countless thousands of refugees, however, remain vulnerable to starvation and disease, and the sickest of them are unable to make the trip.
The refugees abandoned their makeshift camps earlier this week after extremist Hutu militia, who had ruthlessly controlled the camps, fled under attack by mostly Tutsi Zairian rebels.
The result has been an exodus of Biblical proportions, with countless refugees carrying all of their belongings on their backs. "We probably have a 50 kilometer long line," said Ray Wilkinson of the U.N. refugee agency. "It's a solid human wall, and it's that wall that is driving events."
"The road of death is now a road of hope."
-- Ray Wilkinson - U.N. refugee agency. (29 sec. /256K AIFF or WAV sound)
Overwhelmed Rwandans halt exodus
But Rwandans have been overwhelmed at border checkpoints, and a column of refugees stretching for miles late Saturday temporarily came to a halt as night fell over the rugged terrain of Central Africa.
Rwandan border guards earlier in the day gave up trying to register the refugees. And there were reports that the Rwandans were ordered to shut the border to "control the influx," although there was a general expectation that the refugee tide would continue.
"It's pointless trying to count them," said a delegate of the Red Cross. "It's endless, and we are running out of food."
The same mass of humanity crossed the border in chaos and panic in the opposite direction two years ago, fleeing victorious Tutsis who had put an end to the Hutu genocide of an estimated one million Tutsis.
Now, with Hutus streaming back into the country, Rwandans have no way to check whether any of those who committed the atrocities two years ago are among the present flood of refugees.
A crisis far from over
On the Zairian side of the border, the teeming town of Goma filled with the smoke of cooking fires, as thousands of families prepared food and erected green plastic shelters against the rain and cold.
But some of those too old or sick to walk, or those injured in the fighting remained behind. And children throughout the region were separated from their parents.
"My mother told me to wait here, my mother will come to collect me," said 10-year-old Bakariki, waiting alone in a deserted refugee camp.
But her mother could be struggling to cross newly established rebel lines behind Mugunga. And in the mountains to the west, there are clear signs of fighting between the Tutsi rebels and the Hutu militia that they drove out of the camp.
Many of the returning refugees may not complete the journey. In Goma hospital more than 20 people are being treated for suspected cholera. And after two days on the road, refugees are running out of food and water.
Given the mass movement of refugees and their precarious situation, the humanitarian crisis is far from over.
Correspondent Mike Hanna and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- 'An unstoppable wall of people' - November 16, 1996
- Return of refugees encourages attendees of food conference - November 15, 1996
- U.N. Security Council approves relief troops for Zaire - November 15, 1996
- U.S. begins troop movements toward Zaire - November 14, 1996
- New Zaire fighting erupts as aid force takes shape - November 14, 1996
- U.S. troops to assist with African relief force - November 13, 1996
- World Food Summit opens with plea for Zaire refugees - November 13, 1996
- U.S. assessment team going to Central Africa - November 12, 1996
- Canada offers to lead mission into Zaire - November 12, 1996
- Initial aid teams reach towns in eastern Zaire - November 11, 1996
Related sites:
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- The Care Organization
- American Red Cross: Crisis in Eastern Zaire
- Zaire Watch
- U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
- Rwanda Page
- City.Net:Zaire
- Save The Children
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