Zaire rebels tighten grip on eastern town

[Reuter / Christian Jennings]

BENI, Zaire (Reuter) - Rebels backed by tribal militia
tightened their grip around the Zairean town of Bunia Saturday
as aid agencies and Western powers argued over how many Rwandan
refugees were still missing because of the fighting.
Rebel officers told journalists visiting this eastern town
Saturday that their forces and those of the Mai Mai militia had
reached the outskirts of Bunia Saturday.
In Beni, a Reuters correspondent saw truckloads of rebel
fighters moving toward Bunia, 85 miles to the southwest.
One truck had 60 Mai Mai fighters, mostly children,
decorated with fetishistic grass and headbands.
A rebel commander told Reuters: ``Military commanders from
Beni have moved to the front.''
Aid sources said Bunia was still held by the Zairean army,
which had received air-borne reinforcements from Kisangani,
largest city in the region. The rebels earlier claimed to have
taken Bunia last Tuesday.
The Alliance of Democratic Forces for Liberation of Congo
-Zaire (ADFL) fighters now control much of eastern Zaire after
capturing the towns of Uvira, Kamanyola, Bukavu, Goma, Butembo
and Beni.
Lt.-Gen. Maurice Baril, Canadian commander of a
multinational force to help Rwandan refugees and displaced
Zaireans arrived in Rwanda from Nairobi en route to Zaire.
Baril told reporters in Kigali before heading to talks with
aid agencies in the Rwandan border town of Gisenyi he would
visit rebel-held eastern Zaire Sunday for more information.
Canadian Defense Minister Doug Young said Friday 700,000
refugees had returned to Rwanda from Zaire, the highest estimate
since rebellion broke out in Zaire in October.
A U.N. official, who declined to be identified, called the
estimate ``ridiculous'' and said ``hundreds of thousands'' of
people needed help. ``There appears to be a push by some powers
to maximize the number back to disguise doing nothing for those
who remain in Zaire,'' the official said.
Sadako Ogata, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
said in Geneva Friday 562,000 refugees in eastern Zaire had
returned by Wednesday. In addition 60,000 Burundian refugees had
gone back to Burundi.
Ogata said her agency's figure of 1.2 million refugees
originally in Zaire had come from careful survey, but U.S.
diplomats have suggested the UNHCR total was exaggerated.
Before Canada's estimate Friday the highest total for the
number returned in November was 656,000 from U.S. military
searches for refugees still in Zaire using aerial surveillance.
``Against a UNHCR registered caseload of 1.096 million
Rwandan refugees in Zaire before the crisis, basic arithmetic
suggests there should be a minimum of 439,500 remaining in
Zaire,'' the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) said.
Baril said Friday aerial surveillance has found no more than
165,000 refugees on the move in eastern Zaire.
``The 'numbers issue' remains one of the hottest political
issues in the humanitarian crisis in eastern Zaire,'' DHA said.
Rwanda and rebel leader Laurent Kabila said all non-military
refugees who wanted to go home had done so while aid agencies
openly doubted the impartiality of the foreign surveys.
Medical aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without
borders) said Friday more than 100,000 Rwandan refugees were
trekking northwest through Zaire in a huge column. Baril made no
mention of such a movement.
The small multinational force based in Uganda has so far
been unable to deploy in eastern Zaire because of opposition
from both the Kinshasa government and Rwandan-backed rebels.