Tutsi-led troops moved Tuesday into U.N.-controlled southwestern Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of Hutus have fled for fear of revenge attacks.
As many as 150 soldiers of the rebel-installed government moved into the protection zone set up by French troops, who withdrew last month, said Shaharyar Khan, the U.N. special representative for Rwanda.Platoons went to Cyangugu, Gikongoro and Kibuye to secure a radio relay station, a tea factory and local government offices, Khan said.
The move contradicts earlier government statements that its first personnel in the region would be civilians. The only civilian officials there so far are four customs agents on the Rwandan-Zairian border.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front soldiers are likely to bring the entire area under government control within a month, he said.
"It doesn't mean that the date the RPF completes its presence in the sector we will withdraw," said Khan.
He said the U.N. troops might remain in the zone despite the presence of government soldiers. The transition from U.N. to government control in the sector is being controlled by a joint U.N.-RPF committee, he said.
French troops moved into Rwanda from Zaire on June 23 and established the protection zone as a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of frightened Hutus fleeing the advance of the RPF troops.
An estimated 500,000 people, mostly Tutsi civilians, were massacred in three months of fighting and ethnic slaughter in Rwanda. Many of the Hutus were afraid the RPF would kill them in retaliation.
Khan said the U.N. estimates there are 480,000 displaced people inside the zone, down from a high of 1.2 million. Tens of thousands of refugees rushed into Zaire when the French withdrew, but the exodus was not on the huge scale that aid officials had been fearing.