KILLING WITH KINDNESS IN CENTRAL AFRICA

Why the western aid agencies' humanitarian pleas are misguided

Threats to the stability of central Africa grew yesterday amid reports that Kisangani, the largest town in eastern Zaire, had fallen to Rwandan-backed rebels. The news came as Zaire accused Uganda of "unprovoked aggression" following further border clashes, and Burundi's civil war showed signs of flaring back into life. Although reports that parts of Kisangani had fallen to the rebels could not immediately be confirmed, Zairean forces were in retreat elsewhere, leaving the eastern border region in turmoil. Local witnesses confirmed that the army, which has

suffered a series of humiliating defeats since Tutsi-dominated rebels launched their October assault, had been ousted over the weekend from the key town of Beni, 250kms north of Goma. They said Bunia, another town 150 kms to the north, now looked in danger. But it was not immediately clear whether the soldiers, looting and raping as they fled, had been routed by the Rwandan-backed Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of CongoZaire (ADFL) or Ugandan troops infiltrating from across the border. Contradicting earlier accounts by military officials, Uganda's defence minister denied Zairean claims that his men had crossed over, saying they had only shelled frontier positions held by an Islamic guerrilla movement opposed to President Yoweri Museveni. But it seemed increasingly likely that Uganda, a close ally of Rwanda and with a history of tense relations with Zaire, had been tempted to join forces with the ADFL to rid itself of a security threat that has been plaguing its border for weeks.

The ADFL's swift recent advance across the region which its leader Mr Laurent Kabila yesterday claimed also extended as far as the southern gold and diamond centre of Kamituga, where South Africa's Anglo-American corporation has substantial interests, has had a dra-matic spillover effect on Burundi. Ousted from their camps in south Kivu, Hutu rebels are fighting their way across the country, apparently intent on rebasing in Tanzania. The main rebel group said over the weekend it had stepped up a guerrilla campaign against the Tutsi army and fierce fighting was now raging in Burundi's five main regions, sending thousands of civilians into flight. The latest regional reverberations have underlined the enormous complexity of the task facing a scaleddown international force still hoping to get aid to hundreds of thousands of stranded refugees from its operational base in Entebbe. With both the ADFL, Zairean and Rwandan governments proving unco-operative, the force was humiliatingly reduced on Saturday to flying

its first consignment to Kigoma in Tanzania, an area accessible to ordinary aid flights.