Africa Aid Delay Is Intolerable

What has taken so long to get help to Central Africa? More than a week after Canada volunteered to lead a multinational military effort and the U.N. Security Council approved a humanitarian mission, military leaders are still working on a plan of action.

The crisis is far from over, although hundreds of thousands of Hutus have voluntarily returned home to Rwanda after spending two years in exile in Zaire. These people need food and shelter now. Other Hutus--their numbers uncertain--remain in eastern Zaire. They too need help to survive, along with safe passage to the homeland they fled in fear of a Tutsi-led regime populated by survivors of Hutu genocide.

The Western powers and several African nations have promised assistance under the auspices of the United Nations. The United States, though wary, has said it will dispatch 1,000 logistics specialists and give $140 million for supplies and expenses. France, Britain and Spain have also promised help. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cameroon and Senegal are among the 35 nations meeting in Germany to form the humanitarian venture. This unusually robust African response could provide a model for future crises.

The Tutsi government in Rwanda insists that all Hutus who want to come home have already returned. The regime also so far has refused to let the multinational force base its mission inside Rwandan borders.

Just a week ago, the focus of the crisis was the Hutu refugee camps in Zaire, whose weak government was challenged further by the double disaster of famine and fighting between tribal groups. Now the focus has moved east, into Rwanda, with the flow of refugees. But the new location has not lessened the urgency to resolve this latest African struggle.