More help needed in central Africa

The refugee crisis in central Africa has eased, but is not over. Substantial American help is still needed. But with relief agencies now able to reach about half the refugees without security escorts, the need for U.S. military forces should be carefully reassessed.

Some half-million civilian Hutu refugees who had been trapped in Zaire's northern Kivu region have been liberated from Hutu militias and are streaming back across the Rwandan border to their home villages. But hundreds of thousands more in the southern Kivu area remain unaccounted for and may still be trapped behind militia lines.

The Canadian-led international military force authorized by the U.N. Security Council last Friday could still save many lives by securing relief and evacuation corridors to southern Kivu. But first, security assurances must be obtained from the various governments and militias of the region. Washington rightly insists that the force must have assurance from all sides that it will not come under attack.

President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Anthony Lake, spent Monday in Ottawa making plans for airlift and headquarters operations in Rwanda and neighboring countries so the force could move in quickly if needed once security guarantees have been obtained.

Meanwhile, most of the refugees returning to Rwanda will need outside help in the form of food and temporary shelter for many months. The international community should sustain and even intensify its relief efforts inside Rwanda. The Clinton administration did right to announce US$140 million in new emergency aid Monday.

There are also security questions, with many Hutus afraid they could be subjected to reprisals by survivors of the 1994 massacre of Tutsis by Hutu militants. The international community will have to provide some kind of impartial monitoring of the security problem to keep the deadly cycle of killings, reprisals and mass flight from resuming.

Central Africa today is beset with potential problems. Minority Tutsi governments uneasily hold power in Rwanda and Burundi. Zaire is plunging into political crisis as the health of its longtime dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, deteriorates. Too often in the past, the outside world has responded only to the most visible crises and left underfunded U.N. humanitarian agencies and private relief groups to deal with the rest.

The United States and other countries should show more foresight this time by continuing to work on the challenges of relief, development and regional diplomacy after the poignant pictures of refugee camps fade from the world's television screens.

-- The New York Times