AS A UN team and Argentine forensic experts prepare to investigate alleged massacres in eastern Zaire, the UN refugee agency yesterday condemned "shocking reports" of killings of refugees in rebel held areas.
A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is trying to find and save nearly 100,000 Rwandan Hutus, called for an urgent inquiry.
Ms Pamela O'Toole said. "While we appreciate the promise of the (rebel) Alliance leader, Laurent Kabila, to help us locate and repatriate the refugees, we are receiving increasingly shocking reports of killings of refugees both in the area around Kisangani and elsewhere.
"There are lots of reports from refugees about them being attacked by villagers or even by Alliance troops," she added. "These killings must stop and an urgent investigation must be launched."
Mr Kabila's rebels control over half of Zaire and are advancing towards the capital, Kinshasa but are coming under mounting international pressure over their treatment of the refugees.
UN agencies have protested over the weekend abduction by armed soldiers of 50 children and 60 adults from a paediatric hospital at Lwiro, north of Bukavu.
"These people have not been seen since and there have been reports that they may have been killed," Ms O'Toole said.
The United Nations Children's Fund said a hospital staff member who witnessed the Lwiro abduction had recognised the man leading the operation as the commander of a rebel detachment in the nearby town of Katana.
The abduction was followed by the discovery on Monday of the bodies of 20 Rwandan refugees at the Biaro encampment south of Kisangani, emptied of its 30,000 residents last week amid reported violence. Another 50,000 fled Kasese for the jungle.
"These are simply the latest in a series of reports of serious human rights abuses in Alliance held territory of eastern Zaire," Ms O'Toole said.
Her agency supported the UN mission to investigate alleged massacres since September, which is due to arrive in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Saturday. It is widely seen by diplomats as a litmus test of Mr Kabila's willingness to co-operate with such inquiries.
Mr Kabila said on Monday he was committed to an independent UN inquiry into reports of killings of Rwandan refugees. But he wanted rebel officials to sit in on the inquiry as observers and said it should include members of the Organisation of African Unity and neighbouring countries.
A UN spokeswoman said the mission's mandate and membership were "not matters for discussion".
UN agencies managed to send some aid yesterday to thousands of Rwandan refugees emerging from hiding in Zaire's forests but had some problems with rebel co-operation.
The rebels failed the first test on Monday of Mr Kabila's promise of free access to refugees when an aid convoy was turned back at a check point at Biaro. UNHCR said out of 21 sick refugees driven out of Biaro camp on Monday, one had died and two were having limbs amputated yesterday.