Relief workers kept trying Tuesday to reach thousands of hungry, terrified people hiding throughout Rwanda. And international efforts were under way to try to bring an end to the blood-bath.
But the rebels said they oppose any intervention in the Central African country. "If the mission of such a force is to stop the genocide, it is too late," said Jacques Bihozagara of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front.More than 100,000 Rwandans have been killed in nearly a month of ethnic savagery. An estimated 1.3 million have been displaced and about 250,000 refugees have fled to Tanzania.
Militiamen killed 21 orphans at a school in Butare on Sunday, along with 13 Rwandan Red Cross workers who tried to protect them, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday.
The Belgian Red Cross quoted one of its officials in Butare, Pascal Dufour, as saying the children - between the ages of 3 and 12 - were "selected on an ethnic basis" from a group of about 500 orphans evacuated from Kigali, the Rwandan capital about 50 miles to the north.
The government and army are led by Hutus, the majority ethnic group in Rwanda, while the rebels are mostly Tutsis. The militias are mainly Hutu, and the implication is that the slain orphans were Tutsis, as have been virtually all victims of the massacres.
The United Nations reported heavy shelling Tuesday in Kigali, where civilian gangs and militias still control much of downtown.
U.N. spokesman Abdul Kabia, speaking by telephone from Kigali, said there are reports the massacres have diminished in the city but continue in the countryside, particularly southern areas controlled by the army and militias.
An estimated 250,000 of Kigali's 350,000 residents have fled the city, said Emery Brusset, spokesman for the U.N.'s emergency humanitarian effort in Rwanda.
U.N. officials estimate that some 20,000 people are sheltered in unguarded churches throughout the capital, as well as in the known U.N. safe havens: a stadium, hospital and two hotels. Some are afraid to tell even the United Nations where they are hiding.
In the United States, the Clinton administration sent a State Department team to the region to offer support for African efforts to stop the conflict. The administration also said Monday it will contribute $15 million to the United Nations humanitarian effort.