STRASBOURG - Western states which rushed troops in to evacuate their nationals from Zaire but refused to send forces to help trapped Rwandan refugees were guilty of double standards, European Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Emma Bonino said on Wednesday. A bitter Bonino told the European Parliament she no longer believed Westerners who said the life of a Rwandan refugee was as important as the life of a European. The number of Western troops now waiting in neighbouring Congo to rush European Union citizens out of Zaire was far larger than the multinational force which had been due to go to Zaire in December to rescue half a million Rwandan refugees caught up in Zaire's civil war, Bonino said. The international community had "missed the opportunity to prevent a bloodbath" by deciding at the eleventh hour not to send the force to help the refugees, hundreds of whom were dying every day. She said she understood Western public reticence to send their troops into foreign danger zones, even though these were profess

ional soldiers who had chosen a military career. But she said it was difficult to understand why the deaths of humanitarian aid workers, who had gone into areas of Zaire where no foreign soldiers had ventured, failed to arouse the same sympathy. The parliament is due to adopt a resolution on Thursday condemning attacks on refugees, attributed to the troops of Zairean rebel leader Laurent Kabila, and urging the rebels to stop blocking access to international relief agencies trying to reach refugees in the vast swathes of country now under their control.