8- The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 23, 1994
I
U.N. reports new
wave of deaths m
war-torn Rwanda
The Washington Post
KIGALI, Rwanda - United Na-
tions officials say they are worried
about widespread and increasingly fre-
quent reports that soldiers of the new
Tutsi-led Rwandan government may
be kidnapping and killing some Hutu
refugees who have tried to return to
their homes.
The mounting evidence of abuses
by the governing Rwandan Patriotic
Front has slowed the flow of refugees
crossing into Rwanda, relief workers
said, and have created a new exodus of
Hutus from southeastern Rwanda into
western Tanzania.
Some relief officials say the grow-
ing number of incidents raises ques-
tions about the level of discipline the
Front - a Tutsi-led rebel group that
ousted Rwanda's Hutu government in
July - can exert over its forces.
The Front's victory followed three
months of bloodshed that claimed an
estimated half-million lives - princi-
pally members of the minority Tutsi
tribe killed by Hutu soldiers and mili-
tiamen.
Relief officials say the new attacks
raise the specter of a cycle of revenge
killings that could further complicate
efforts to return the country to nor-
malcy and pursuade the 2 million refu-
gees outside the country to come home.
The exodus out of Zaire - which
reached a peak of more than 2,000
returning Hutus one day last week -
has slowed to a trickle.
U.N. military officials here in the
capital said they considered the reports
of abuses in southeastern Rwanda by
the Front so serious that they have
assembled an emergency unit of 120
Canadian and Australian U.N. peace-
keepers that will be dispatched to the'
area before the end of this week.
"We hear things, so we're sending
some soldiers there," said Maj. Guy
Plante, the U.N. military spokesman
here. "We hear of incidents - intimi-
dation, perhaps some revenge killings.
We hear these things often enough to
send some soldiers in there to have a
look," he said.
"We've decided to put this force
together and dispatch it to that area as
soon as possible."
Many of the 2 million-plus
Rwandan Hutus who fled to refugee
camps in Tanzania and eastern Zaire
have long complained they risked be-
ing tortured or killed if they tried to go
home.
But most of the reported cases of
AP PHOTO
Rwandan refugees huddle under plastic sheeting to escape a torrential rain yesterday at a camp in Kibumba, some
13 miles north of Goma, Zaire. As the tropical monsoon takes hold, many fear flooding will lead to a rise in deaths.
harassment have remained unsubstan-
tiated, and the refugees' concerns
largely have been dismissed as the re-
sult ofan orchestrated propaganda cam-
paign in the refugee camps by officials
of the deposed Rwandan regime.
Now, however, U.N. officials say
they have growing evidence that at
least some of the accusations of abuse
may be true.
In the Zairian town of Goma, the
site of the largest refugee settlements,
Lyndall Sachs, spokeswoman for the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refu-
gees, yesterday told reporters, "we're
starting to see a very disturbing pattern
emerging of harassment, kidnapping
and murder of people who have gone
back by (Front) soldiers."
She said the U.N. agency "will cer-
tainly be registering our concern very
firmly" with the new government.
Over the last four days, she said,
nearly 500 Rwandan Hutus have come
to the U.N. offices in Goma with sto-
ries of harassment at the hands of Front
troops, "and they sound very feasible
... very consistent."
With the reports of abuses spread-
ing and gaining some credibility, the
U.N. refugee agency's earlier policy of
trying to encourage the refugees to go
home has been largely abandoned.
While saying they believed some
of the reports of harassment and slay-
ing of returnees were true, U.N. offi-
cials said they had no evidence that the
abuses reflected a systematic policy on
the part of the Tutsi leadership.
Power company shuts off Russian nuclear facility
Los Angeles Times
MOSCOW - Russia's nuclear ar-
senal survived intact for three decades
of Cold War showdown with the West,
but its custodians yesterday were reel-
ing from a humiliating sneak attack on
their headquarters.
It came not from a weapon of de-
struction, nor a terrorist, nor a thief in
the night.
It happened in broad daylight and
has been blamed on a fearless but face-
less bureaucrat at the Moscow power
company.
For at least 74 minutes Wednesday,
the utility shut off electricity to the
Strategic Rocket Forces command cen-
ter for failure to pay $645,000 in over-
due bills.
The command post - in an under-
ground bunker, full of communica-
tions gear with launch codes and moni-
toring equipment for 744 interconti-
nental ballistic missiles across the
former Soviet Union - switched to
emergency back-up power.
A statement from the base said "the
military preparedness of the Strategic
Rocket Forces was not impaired."
But the country's security estab-
lishment erupted with fury yesterday
over the bizarre blackout, which Prime
Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin called
"scandalous."
To many, the incident seemed to
show how the economic disorder and
breakdown of authority in post-Soviet
Russia pose indiscriminate threats to
vital national interests.
Some officials suggested it could
undermine efforts by Russian Presi-
dent Boris Yeltsin at his summit next
week with President Bill Clinton to
portray Russia as an increasingly stable
country worthy of Western trust, aid
and investment.
"The Americans will have doubts
now whether Russia and the Yeltsin
administration, in particular, are ca-
pable of being responsible for the con-
ditions under which nuclear arms are
stored," said Alexei Arbatov, a disar-
mament specialist and member of Par-
liament. "The people responsible
should beputon trial and sent to prison.
What happened Wednesday is still
a matter of conflicting accounts from
the two antagonists: the Russian De-
fense Ministry, which hasn't paid for a
kilowatt sinceJanuary; andMosenergo,
the Moscow utility that claims the mili-
tary owes it 50 billion rubles, about
$21.5 million.
A government rule prohibits power
cut-offs to strategic military installa-
tions. But Mosenergo officials claimed
not to understand that they were violat-
ing this regulation.
They said they simply cut power at
2:30 p.m. to a Defense Ministry "ob-
ject" known to them only by a code
number. "We turned off a cable to
remind the leadership of this object to
undertake measures to pay its debt,"
said IgorGoryunov, the utility's deputy
director.
Mosenergo officials said powerwas
restored at 3:44 p.m. after a telephone
call from Gen. Igor Sergeyev, com-
mander of the rocket forces base 12
miles west of Moscow. They said the
general agreed to meet next week to
discuss a debt payment schedule.
Sergeyev didn't sound agreeable at
all.
"There are no words in the Russian
language, even unprintable ones, to
comment on what happened," he de-
clared.
Rocket forces officers said the
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blackout lasted four hours and the util-
ity knew exactly what it was doing.
They said that only the bunker, several
hundred feet underground, lost power
while officers' quarters on the base
were unaffected.
According to Western and Russian
specialists, communications equipment
in the bunker can transmit launch-codes
via land lines, satellite and high-fre-
quency radio to nuclear missiles. The
equipment also lets Russian officers
monitor missiles for tampering.
These systems are periodically
checked to test back-up emergency
systems - battery power packs and
diesel generators, the specialists said.
Even if back-ups fail, they added, mis-
siles can be monitored and launched
from Defense Ministry headquarters
on Arbat Street in Moscow.
"A blackout by itselfwouldn'tcause
a dire degradation of the rocket forces'
combat capability," said Bruce Blair,
an arms control specialists at the
Brookings Institution in Washington.
"But it might be a symptom of the
weakness of Russia's central author-
i t y . "M
tan
w. ord
Dail
Canada
gun owners
protest new
proposals
Los Angeles Times
TORONTO - In a dramatic ex-
ample of the increasing clout of the gun
lobby in Canada, thousands rallied on
Parliament Hill in Ottawa yesterday to
protest proposed firearm restrictions
and to boo the federal justice minister
as he tried to defend them.
The rally drew a crowd estimated
by police at 10,000 and showed that,
while gun control opponents may be i
retreat in the United States, they are on
the advance here.
With a wave of organizing, public
protests, lobbying and political activity
this summer, they have forced the Lib-
eral government into a public debate
over its anti-gun campaign - despite
overwhelming support in the polls for
tighter limits.
Canada already has much toughe*
gun laws and far lower crime rates than
the United States.
But a series of highly publicized
gun killings this spring and summer,
including the first murder of a Toronto
police officer in six years, prompted
Canadian Justice Minister Allan Rock
to announce plans for new gun control
legislation.
Drafting of the bill is not complete.
But the proposed law likely would*
extend national registration from hand-
guns to all firearms, ban some assault
weapons and increase penalties for us-
ing a gun in a crime. Rock also has not
ruled out prohibition of handgun own-
ership.
Rally in Toronto draws
crowd of 10,000 and
shows gun-lobby has
powerful following
In response, a pro-gun lobby mate-
rialized in Canada's mountain, prairie
and farm regions, barraging members
of Parliament with mail and threaten-
ing to defeat those who vote for new
gun laws. The advocates refuse to
equate gun laws with crime control an
argue that registration could lead to
confiscation.
Linda Thom, Canadian gold med-
alist in the pistol shoot at the 1984
Olympics in Los Angeles, told the rally
yesterday, "We speak all kinds of lan-
guages, but our common language, Mr.
Rock, is crime control, not gun con-
trol."
Jerry Ouellette, a rally organizer
from Toronto, said in an interviews
"Government is constantly pushing
more gun legislation, saying we need
to control crime, but we've had gun
legislation for years and we're not con-
trolling crime. It's come to the point
where wejustdon't trust the politicians
any more."
When Rock tried to address the
rally yesterday, he was met with cat-
calls, boos andchants."We are notou
to take away your hunting rifles," Rock
told the crowd.
To legally buy a rifle or shotgun in
Canada under current law, purchasers
must be at least 18 years old, pass a
government-approved safety course,
obtain a $50firearm acquisition certifi-
cate from police and undergo a back-
ground check. There is a 28-day wait-
ing period between ordering guns and
taking possession.
Buying ahandgun is more difficult.
Besides having a firearm acquisition
certificate, buyers need a restricted-
weapon permit. They are difficult to
obtain and are registered with the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police.
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