World IN BRIEF : RWANDA : France Appeals to U.N. to Avert Crisis

French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur said France has fulfilled its mission in war-torn Rwanda and that it is time for the United Nations to send troops and humanitarian aid to head off a fresh crisis. “What is at stake is the credibility of the United Nations,” Balladur told a news conference in New York. “France has shouldered her responsibility . . . more or less alone because no one was doing very much.” But Balladur and Foreign Minister Alain Juppe no longer insisted that all French troops will leave by July 31. Instead, Juppe told reporters that there would be a “progressive” withdrawal as U.N. forces arrived. Balladur also promised that France will turn over to a war crimes commission any information it has on those responsible for the massacres of hundreds of thousands.