November 18, 1996
PRESIDENT CLINTON HALTS ZAIRE INTERVENTION!
Friday's 'Crisis' in Zaire Turned Out To Be No Crisis At All!
by Howard Hobbs Ph.D., Economics Editor
WASHINGTON BUREAU - When President Clinton approved a U.S. role in U.N. humanitarian forces last week, Republican lawmakers in Congress cautioned that the administration would have to avoid the kind of mistakes made in the humanitarian mission in Somalia.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, Clinton argued that the United States cannot disregard such overwhelming human tragedies and must get involved with American military forces.
He said, 'As the world's most powerful nation, we cannot turn our back when so many people, especially so many innocent children, are at mortal risk'.
However, the Rwandan government said Saturday that the mass repatriation meant the rescue mission was not necessary, not wanted, and it urged the United Nations to send aid to help resettle the returning refugees.
Food isn't a problem. The U.N. World Food Program has stockpiled enough food inside Rwanda to feed 700,000 people for 45 days, with additional supplies warehoused in nearby countries. Other aid groups have also laid in emergency provisions.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry tried to put on a happy-face when he depicted the exodus of ethnic Hutus from refugee camps in Zaire (an estimated 120,000 crossed the border into Rwanda on Saturday) as a positive development. he said that the change in the situation had given pause to planners in the United States and other Western nations poised to help stabilize the chaotic situation in the camps.
Speaking to reporters at a Pentagon briefing, Perry said no decisions had yet been made on whether to reduce the American role in the U.N.-authorized mission to help feed and protect the refugees, who were liberated from the camps after the apparent rout of Hutu extremists who had held them virtual captives.
On Friday, the U.N. Security Council authorized the dispatch of 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers to Central Africa on the humanitarian mission. The Clinton administration had been considering a U.S. contingent of as many as 5,000 troops for the four-month effort.
With the situation on the ground changing by the hour, the Pentagon was clearly reluctant to commit a large force if it was no longer needed.
If the refugees continue to flow out of the camps, Perry said,'... it will change substantially the nature of the humanitarian problem in the region. It will not eliminate the need for humanitarian support, but it will substantially change the nature of that need.'
Saturday's exodus from Zaire to neighboring Rwanda brought the 30-hour total of returning refugees to more than 200,000 people, with hundreds of thousands more still tramping in eerie silence on the road behind them, according to a spokesman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The unexpected influx overwhelmed border guards and aid workers, who gave up all attempts to register or search the refugees for weapons as they quietly poured across the Rwandan border at Gisenyi. At one point, aid workers estimated that 12,000 people were crossing each hour.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry described the exodus of ethnic Hutus from refugee camps in Zaire (an estimated 120,000 crossed the border into Rwanda on Saturday) as a positive development that had given pause to planners in the United States and other Western nations poised to help stabilize the chaotic situation in the camps.
On Thursday, the Daily Republican warned that the intervention announced by president Clinton was unnecessary, and that it would be another failed military intervention. The Daily Republican reported that whatever problems that Zaire refugees had could be easily resolved by the refugees themselves. By Saturday, they did.
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