U.N. May Be Target in Rwandan Artillery Battles

Troops of Rwanda’s rival tribal groups battled in the capital with artillery Wednesday, and the United Nations voiced fears that renegade government soldiers were purposely firing at U.N. compounds.

Mortar rounds blasted the airport, severely wounding a U.N. soldier from Ghana, and shells also fell outside U.N. headquarters in the city center, U.N. spokesman Abdul Kabia said by telephone from Kigali, the capital.

The United Nations has already reduced its peacekeeping force from 2,500 to fewer than 500 soldiers because of fighting that international aid workers estimate has killed up to 200,000 Rwandans.

In Washington, a congressional panel was told Wednesday that a Rwandan radio station is encouraging slaughter of all members of the minority Tutsi tribe. The disclosure prompted a shouting match between the Rwandan ambassador and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.).

Burton told Rwandan Ambassador Aloys Uwimana, who was in the hearing room, that “if there is a grain of truth” in the allegation about the radio station, “your government will go down in the annals of history right alongside Idi Amin.” Amin was a Ugandan leader who was much criticized for human rights abuses.

When the hearing broke, Uwimana followed Burton into the hallway, and the two engaged in a finger-jabbing argument.

Meanwhile, a high-level U.S. delegation was headed for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Wednesday for talks regarding Rwanda with African leaders, the State Department said.

Rwanda has been enmeshed in violence since a mysterious April 6 plane crash that killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, both members of the Hutu majority that held power in Rwanda. Government troops and civilian militias launched a killing spree against political opponents, Tutsis and U.N. peacekeepers.