Rwanda’s War Apparently Resuming in Zaire

A battle Friday for control of the world’s largest refugee camp appeared to mark a bitter resumption of Rwanda’s genocidal war of 1994--but with the bloodletting now across the border in eastern Zaire.

Mortar and antiaircraft fire roared for a second day around the vast Mugunga refugee camp, about 12 miles northwest of the Zairian border city of Goma and the last known location of more than 400,000 ethnic Hutu refugees. It wasn’t clear how many remained at the squalid site.

The clash--reportedly between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic enemies from Rwanda’s civil war--signaled a dangerous new phase in Zaire’s conflict. Previously, most of the fighting in the region had pitted fast-advancing Zairian rebels against the retreating rabble of Zaire’s army.

But refugees fleeing Mugunga on Friday said extremist Hutu militias and uniformed soldiers from Rwanda’s defeated Hutu regime were making a stand at the camp against a fierce siege by guerrillas backed by Rwanda’s current Tutsi-led government.

The rebel assault apparently eased after heavy gunfire was heard early Friday. Refugees reaching Goma told journalists that the camp’s Hutu defenders had abducted children from nearby Zairian villages and put them on the front lines as human shields. The report could not be confirmed.

After a four-day cease-fire, the renewed fighting posed major obstacles to diplomatic efforts to deploy a multinational force in Zaire. Aid groups are desperate to route humanitarian aid to more than 1 million refugees stranded without food or other assistance since fleeing their camps in the past month.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council, facing what Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called the prospect of “genocide by starvation” in Central Africa, laid the groundwork for deploying a stabilizing force of as many as 5,000 soldiers in the region.

However, a final vote on the proposal, offered by France, was delayed until next week largely because of questions raised by the United States.

As the Security Council met, senior Clinton administration foreign policy officials--including Secretary of State Warren Christopher, U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright and National Security Advisor Anthony Lake--gathered at the White House to help coordinate a response to the unfolding crisis.

The talks were frequently interrupted by telephone contacts with representatives from allied governments, according to one White House source.

“It’s clear from the discussions that there is growing international concern that some form of security needs are required if humanitarian relief is going to be provided,” the source said. “We are now studying what kind of force is needed and what the U.S. role in that force might be.”

White House officials indicated that a final decision on any possible U.S. role would be made in a matter of days rather than hours.

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Also Friday, French President Jacques Chirac met with British Prime Minister John Major in Bordeaux, France, but was unable to enlist his support for the proposal.

In a carefully worded statement, the two nations agreed to “coordinate their efforts closely” to ensure that “necessary international arrangements” can be made to reach the refugees.

Major told reporters that Britain is eager to help but added: “What that help may be remains to be determined.”

As envisioned by the French, the multinational force would separate the warring, often ill-disciplined armies and militias in the region, protect humanitarian workers and provide a haven for refugees.

The mission would be limited to two months, be financed by participating states and be followed by an international conference aimed at finding a long-term solution for the problem.

Although France and other European and African nations have volunteered to provide troops, the precise makeup of the expedition is expected to be worked out by Boutros-Ghali and participating countries before a final vote.

The United States would not be expected to supply troops but might be asked to give logistics support such as air transport.

The Rwandan government objects to the inclusion of French troops in the force, believing that the French acted against Rwandan interests during a 1994 intervention in the region.

“The point of the force would be to bring food and water to people who are dying and to create the conditions for an international conference,” one European representative at the U.N. said of the French proposal.

Sylvana Foa, a spokeswoman for Boutros-Ghali, said Friday that Hutu extremists have “brainwashed” most of the refugees into believing that they will be killed if they return to Rwanda. She said only about 2,300 Rwandan refugees have been repatriated.

Diplomats at the United Nations said the key to a long-range solution in the region is separating the refugees from the Hutu extremists, but there is no consensus on how that can be done.

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The French want that to be the topic of the vaguely defined international conference, which could be organized by Boutros-Ghali’s special envoy to the region, Raymond Chretien.

Chretien arrived Friday in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, to discuss what he called a “very, very urgent question of the refugees” with Rwandan authorities.

Rwanda has denied Zaire’s repeated charges that its troops invaded Zaire in support of the Tutsi rebels.

Accurate information about the fighting or the level of suffering has been almost impossible to obtain since fighting erupted near the Zairian town of Uvira in early October as an uprising by local Tutsis, who said they were battling persecution by the government of President Mobutu Sese Seko.

Analysts said the battle of Mugunga might signal a final Tutsi effort to eradicate the Hutu forces and finish the 1994 Rwandan war.

Fanatic Hutu militias and Hutu troops are blamed for butchering at least 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in organized massacres in Rwanda between April and July 1994. A Tutsi-led force then chased them and more than 1 million Hutu refugees into Zaire and took control of Rwanda.

The exiled Hutu soldiers, who fled with most of their weapons, soon built a large military base across the road from the Mugunga camp. The camp itself became a major stronghold of the radical militias, which are known as the Interahamwe, or “those who attack together.”

Times staff writers Craig Turner at the United Nations and Tyler Marshall in Washington contributed to this report.