Zaire’s Crisis Takes Deadly Toll on Refugees

At least 120 Rwandan refugees are dying every day in two camps sheltering 80,000 people in territory held by Zairian rebels, according to the United Nations.

Pam O’Toole, spokeswoman in Geneva for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said tens of thousands are stranded south of rebel-held Kisangani.

The crisis prompted the U.N. Security Council on Friday night to call on the rebels to grant aid workers immediate and free access to the refugees.

The agency is trying to get permission to airlift out sick and elderly refugees on planes that bring food to Kisangani, O’Toole said.

“Planes bringing relief supplies to Kisangani are returning empty, and we need to make use of them,” she said. “We could easily bring out 150 refuges on our outbound flights if we are allowed to do so.”

But aid workers familiar with the flights say insurance policies permit the planes to carry only three passengers on return trips.

The rebels, fighting to oust dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, have captured the eastern third of Zaire. The most recent conquest came Friday as rebels took the diamond-mining hub of Mbuji-Mayi, about 600 miles east of the capital, Kinshasa.

Friday night, the Security Council meeting in New York urged the insurgents to allow humanitarian workers free access to Rwandan refugees and to Zairian civilians displaced by the fighting. The council also urged the rebels to cooperate with the U.N. on implementing a plan to airlift the weakest of the refugees from Kisangani.

U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said rebel leader Laurent Kabila agreed Friday to let the Red Cross airlift displaced Zairians from Kisangani to Goma.

But on the issue of the Rwandans, there was no agreement. The rebels said they will not allow the refugees into Kisangani--even to get to the airport to be taken home. They want them to turn around and go back to Rwanda over land, a journey of at least 300 miles on sometimes impassable roads.

In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Thursday that the U.N. refugee agency made a written request to Kabila on March 29, asking permission to fly the sickest of the Rwandan refugees home. No reply has been received, Eckhard said.

At the Goma headquarters of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, a rebel official disputed that allegation.

“The alliance has already given all the authority and all the permissions for humanitarian agencies to go and save the refugees,” Gaetan Kakudji said Friday. “We don’t understand why, after giving all the authorization, they continue accusing us of creating a problem.”

The U.N., however, says it still has not received permission to land at the airport.