Rwandan Rebels Claim Capture of Government City

After days of heavy fighting, ethnic Tutsi rebels claimed Monday to have driven government troops from the politically important city of Gitarama southwest of the capital.

A new round of cease-fire talks opened in Kigali, but no breakthroughs appeared imminent. A brief truce in the city, however, allowed U.N. peacekeepers to escort refugees to safe areas for the first time this month.

There was no independent confirmation Gitarama had fallen, but a victory would strengthen the Rwandan Patriotic Front’s position in the Kigali region. The rebels already defeated troops of the Hutu-dominated government in most of the north and east of the Central African nation.

Even if the rebels won the war on the ground, they would find it difficult to rule. Tutsis accounted for only about 10% of the population before civil war broke out two months ago, and many of the hundreds of thousands of Rwandans who have been killed are thought to be Tutsi victims of Hutu militias.

Gitarama, 30 miles southwest of Kigali, had been the makeshift seat of the acting government, but most officials moved last week to the Zaire border in the west. Rebel forces had been pressing in on Gitarama from three directions for several weeks.

“The town has been cleared and is under our control,” rebel Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame said Monday.

While there was no confirmation, Kagame’s past statements have been accurate. He also said Monday that rebel fighters were pursuing government troops as they retreated to northwestern Rwanda.