Forces rampage in Rwanda after presidents killed

Forces rampage in Rwanda after presidents killed

KIGALI (Reuter): Troops, presidential guards and gendarmes went on the rampage in the Rwandan capital of Kigali yesterday, settling scores after the killing of the presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi when a rocket hit their plane, a western diplomat said.

Security forces, at times at odds with each other and under different orders, were joined on the streets by gangs of youths roving the capital, attacking people with knives and firearms.

"It is becoming messier and messier. There are a lot of people with a lot of guns taking different orders and shooting and detaining people," said the diplomat. "A casualty toll is impossible."

"The fighting is going all over the city. Mostly with rifles and pistols but we have also heard some mortar bombs," he added.

A United Nations spokesman said UN forces in some areas were patrolling with members of the security forces while in other parts of the city UN troops were being ordered to withdraw or be shot by other units.

Earlier yesterday, a government statement broadcast on state radio appealed for calm and asked residents to stay in their homes until further notice. It also told security forces to restore order and said the government had formed an emergency committee to handle the crisis. It did not name the members.

The statement said President Juvenal Habyarimana, 57, and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira, 38, leaders of countries racked by tribal friction, died along with two Burundi ministers and five senior Rwandan officials. It said the plane's French crew members were killed but gave no figures.

A Defense Ministry statement also broadcast on Rwandan radio said the plane "was shot down by unidentified elements in circumstances which are still unclear."

Two rockets

But a government official who was at Kigali airport to welcome Habyarimana home told Reuters two rockets hit the plane as it landed. "They did not have a chance, the plane just burned."

Government sources said Belgian soldiers deployed under the United Nations mission in Rwanda were guarding the airport, which was temporarily closed.

Rwandan troops guarded key installations in the capital and patrolled streets. Most civilians stayed home but some residents walked in groups in neighborhoods, speculating on the motives for the killing.

"You really don't want to go out there when we can hear the shooting. No one knows who is in control," a resident said.

Germany's ambassador in Kigali, Dieter Hoelscher, was quoted by German television as saying eyewitnesses had reported that shots were fired at the UN headquarters in the capital.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Jean Marie Ngendahayo told reporters that the deaths of Habyarimana and Ntaryamira were no accident: "What happened was an assassination."

An official of the former rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) reached in Kigali said the group was not responsible.

In New York, the UN announced the deaths of the presidents and the Security Council stood for one minute in silent tribute.

Residents in the center of Kigali, about 15 km (nine miles) west of the airport, said they had heard several very loud explosions followed by sporadic shooting and a small plane could be heard circling the airport, apparently unable to land.

"It is a terrible, terrible catastrophe for both countries at this very dangerous time," a Western diplomat in the Burundi capital Bujumbura said. "Anything could happen." But he said the city was quiet after the news broke.

Habyarimana took power in Rwanda in a coup in 1973 and was blamed by the Tutsi-dominated RPF rebels for repeated delays since December in forming a new government and parliament to end three years of civil war.

Ntaryamira was elected in January to succeed Burundi's first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, who was killed by renegade troops from the Tutsi-dominated army in a failed coup last October.