PEOPLE armed with knives and machetes went on the rampage in rebel held eastern Zaire yesterday against aid workers and Rwandan Hutu refugees they blamed for killing six villagers.
Armed with knives, machetes and clubs angry Zaireans south of Kisangani, over 1,000 kms from Kinshasa, said they had looted vehicles at the urging of the Tutsi dominated rebels, who have seized more than half of Africa's third largest country.
"We are angry because the refugees have killed our people so we are here to loot any vehicle that goes past," one young man said. His companions claimed aid convoys were carrying arms for the Hutus in bags of maize.
After the killings, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ms Sadako Ogata, said a rebel operation near Kasese camp, 25 kms (IS miles) south of Kisangani, had raised fears of a new refugee exodus.
Residents said Hutu refugees attacked a village near Kasese camp, with 32,000 refugees, before dawn and killed at least six people. Villagers also attacked a train loaded with 120 tonnes of food for the Hutu refugees early yesterday and then looted a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse further to the south. Aid workers said they feared such acts were carried out with encouragement from the rebels, who deny any role.
The Eastern Provincial governor, Mr Yagi Sitolo, said on Sunday a UN airlift for the estimated 100,000 refugees south of Kisangani should not start until May 5th due to a cholera epidemic. The death toll from cholera, malaria and malnutrition among the refugees stands at about 40 a day.
In the capital, Kinshasa, which is the rebels' next target, Zaire's Information Minister told foreign journalists they needed new permission by tomorrow to report on the war.
The Minister, Mr Kin Kiey Mulumba, said all foreign journalists had to seek new accreditation by tomorrow. He also announced the setting up of an "ethics" committee to monitor foreign reporting of the war.
Meanwhile, a long search for a diplomatic resolution of the six month conflict through talks in South Africa appears elusive after the rebel leader, Mr Laurent Desire Kabila, said he was building up rebel forces to seize Kinshasa.
South African government sources said yesterday that last minute haggling has delayed the first face to face encounter between Mr Kabila and "President', Mobutu Sese Seko. There was no immediate indication when they would meet.