United Nations Zaire

Fearful of growing chaos and a widening war, the United Nations safely evacuated the last international aid workers from this embattled city Saturday after bands of rebel fighters backed by Rwandan government soldiers routed the Zairian army and captured the key border enclave. The fall of Goma, and the emergency withdrawal of about 130 terrified expatriates by road to nearby Rwanda, mean that no U.N.

The U.N. refugee agency urged Congo President Laurent Kabila and other African leaders Tuesday to take steps to protect Rwandan refugees in the wake of the killing last week of an aid worker and four refugees in the eastern Congo. Spokeswoman Pam O'Toole said the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is suspending its aid work at Karuba, near Goma, where Kabila's soldiers reportedly carried out the May 29 shooting.

A last-chance effort to broker peace talks between warring sides in the seven-month Zairian civil war collapsed Wednesday night, setting the stage for a full-scale rebel assault on the capital, Kinshasa. United Nations special envoy Mohamed Sahnoun said rebel leader Laurent Kabila had refused to attend a second and final round of face-to-face talks with the embattled Zairian president, Mobutu Sese Seko, aboard this South African naval ship.

A last-chance effort to broker peace talks between warring sides in the seven-month Zairian civil war collapsed Wednesday night, setting the stage for a full-scale rebel assault on the capital, Kinshasa. United Nations special envoy Mohamed Sahnoun said rebel leader Laurent Kabila had refused to attend a second and final round of face-to-face talks with the embattled Zairian president, Mobutu Sese Seko, aboard this South African naval ship.

Rebel leader Laurent Kabila, responding to a plea from the United Nations, agreed to delay a threatened attack on the nation's largest refugee camp. Kabila had threatened to assault the Tingi-Tingi camp, which is on the rebels' northern front, this week unless the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees drove out Rwandans he says are armed by the Zairian government.

Representatives of countries considering how--and whether--to help the refugees of Central Africa gathered here Friday in an atmosphere of continuing confusion over how many Rwandans remain in eastern Zaire and how dire their plight is. Delegates from 28 countries and various humanitarian groups offered differing assessments of the scope of the refugee problem and agreed to continue meeting through the weekend to pool information and seek a common understanding.

A United Nations team Thursday discovered that up to 55,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees are missing from a camp in eastern Zaire, and the team was blocked by rebels from a wider search. Not a single Rwandan refugee--dead or alive--could be found at Kasese camp, south of the city of Kisangani. Last week bodies draped in blankets had been laid out in lines at the camp, and many sick refugees there were too weak to walk even one step. "I'm absolutely shocked. There was a camp here four days ago.

Fifty-eight relief workers were evacuated Tuesday from eastern Zaire where they had been trapped by fighting between Zairian troops and ethnic Tutsi rebels, the United Nations said. Sadako Ogata, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, warned that if the fighting doesn't end, "we are . . . heading toward another humanitarian catastrophe." The aid workers were flown from Uvira, a town near Zaire's border with Burundi and Rwanda and the site of four days of heavy fighting.

While Europe pressed for immediate deployment of an international force to aid refugees fleeing fighting in Zaire, Zairian officials urged Saturday that the United Nations first condemn its neighbors for their part in the conflict. Zaire accuses the Tutsi-led armies of Rwanda and Burundi of taking over three key cities in eastern Zaire--Bukavu, Goma and Uvira. Rwanda says Tutsi rebels in Zaire are responsible for the attacks, which have scattered 1.

United Nations agencies and other aid groups scrambled Thursday to prepare emergency cross-border relief operations, but international diplomatic efforts again failed to gain access to more than 1 million Hutu refugees cut off in embattled eastern Zaire. Renewed fighting apparently erupted at the Mugunga refugee camp, about 15 miles west of the border city of Goma, Zaire.

A United Nations team Thursday discovered that up to 55,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees are missing from a camp in eastern Zaire, and the team was blocked by rebels from a wider search. Not a single Rwandan refugee--dead or alive--could be found at Kasese camp, south of the city of Kisangani. Last week bodies draped in blankets had been laid out in lines at the camp, and many sick refugees there were too weak to walk even one step. "I'm absolutely shocked. There was a camp here four days ago.

In an ominous development threatening more than 100,000 exhausted Rwandan refugees facing starvation and disease in eastern Zaire, rebels blocked the United Nations on Friday from starting a massive airlift to carry them home. The Hutu refugees have been on the run since 1994 and are on their last legs, dying at a rate of about 60 a day, although that rate is half that reported earlier this month. Officials of the Office of the U.N.

Rebel leader Laurent Kabila, responding to a plea from the United Nations, agreed to delay a threatened attack on the nation's largest refugee camp. Kabila had threatened to assault the Tingi-Tingi camp, which is on the rebels' northern front, this week unless the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees drove out Rwandans he says are armed by the Zairian government.

The Algerian diplomat appointed as the U.N.'s special envoy to Zaire, Burundi and Rwanda said Tuesday that it may take a huge injection of Western aid--a "mini-Marshall Plan"--to halt the spiral of violence in the war-ravaged Central African nations. Mohamed Sahnoun will go to Africa next week to try to halt the bloodshed, which includes a civil war in Zaire and a cycle of attacks and reprisals by ethnic Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi.

Representatives of countries considering how--and whether--to help the refugees of Central Africa gathered here Friday in an atmosphere of continuing confusion over how many Rwandans remain in eastern Zaire and how dire their plight is. Delegates from 28 countries and various humanitarian groups offered differing assessments of the scope of the refugee problem and agreed to continue meeting through the weekend to pool information and seek a common understanding.

While Europe pressed for immediate deployment of an international force to aid refugees fleeing fighting in Zaire, Zairian officials urged Saturday that the United Nations first condemn its neighbors for their part in the conflict. Zaire accuses the Tutsi-led armies of Rwanda and Burundi of taking over three key cities in eastern Zaire--Bukavu, Goma and Uvira. Rwanda says Tutsi rebels in Zaire are responsible for the attacks, which have scattered 1.

In an ominous development threatening more than 100,000 exhausted Rwandan refugees facing starvation and disease in eastern Zaire, rebels blocked the United Nations on Friday from starting a massive airlift to carry them home. The Hutu refugees have been on the run since 1994 and are on their last legs, dying at a rate of about 60 a day, although that rate is half that reported earlier this month. Officials of the Office of the U.N.

The Algerian diplomat appointed as the U.N.'s special envoy to Zaire, Burundi and Rwanda said Tuesday that it may take a huge injection of Western aid--a "mini-Marshall Plan"--to halt the spiral of violence in the war-ravaged Central African nations. Mohamed Sahnoun will go to Africa next week to try to halt the bloodshed, which includes a civil war in Zaire and a cycle of attacks and reprisals by ethnic Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi.

United Nations agencies and other aid groups scrambled Thursday to prepare emergency cross-border relief operations, but international diplomatic efforts again failed to gain access to more than 1 million Hutu refugees cut off in embattled eastern Zaire. Renewed fighting apparently erupted at the Mugunga refugee camp, about 15 miles west of the border city of Goma, Zaire.

Many of the old, the pregnant and the very young died. The sick were left behind, but soon others became ill. Frantic with fear and exhausted from their flight, some dropped life-saving food and blankets as they ran. Hiding in a rain forest, the refugees were still parched, forced to suck moisture from tree roots.