Citation
GENEVA, April 21 (Reuter) - The International Committee of the Red
Cross said on Thursday it had rarely seen a human tragedy on the scale
of massacres in Rwanda where deaths could run into hundreds of
thousands.
Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands killed: the exact number of victims
of the massacres that have swept Rwanda over the last two weeks will
never be known,
the ICRC said in a statement.
The human tragedy in Rwanda is on a scale that the International
Committee of the Red Cross has rarely witnessed.
The humanitarian agency said its 30 delegates in Rwanda, a French
medical team from the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres and Rwandean Red
Cross volunteers had been risking their lives since April 6 to
preserve a measure of humanity
.
What they have done is vital, but is no more than drop in the ocean,
said the statement.
The ICRC also said several hundred thousand people fleeing the ethnic
fighting were massed in the south and north of Rwanda.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday that
the number of people crossing Rwandas's borders to escape the violence
had doubled over the past week -- more than 50,000 refugees were now
registered in four neighbouring countries.
The UNHCR also expressed fears for 6,000 people it said were being held
in a stadium in the southern Rwandan town of Cyangugu by police and
militiamen.
It quoted field reports a saying police had pulled 60 people out of the
stadium and that 16 had been executed.
A UNHCR spokesman in Geneva told Reuters on Thursday: We are still
concerned about their situation. They are apparently not getting any
food and are living in appalling conditions.
There is food in the city, but they are unable to distribute it to the
people in the stadium because of fighting in the streets.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
