Zaire Rebels Grant Access to Aid Teams

Zairian rebels have agreed to open a corridor for aid to more than 1 million Rwandan and Burundian refugees scattered by fighting in eastern Zaire, a U.N. official said Sunday.

Omar Backhet, resident representative of the U.N. Development Program in Rwanda, said the first assessment teams to check on humanitarian needs and security will enter rebel-held territory today.

Backhet spoke shortly after U.N. special envoy Raymond Chretien returned to the Rwandan capital on a mission he said was aimed at narrowing differences between Rwanda and Zaire on the war in eastern Zaire.

Also Sunday, European Union aid commissioner Emma Bonino held talks with Zairian officials in Kinshasa, Zaire, and said afterward that any repatriation of Hutu refugees to Rwanda must be voluntary.