Fighting Flares in Rwanda as U.N. Nears Vote

NAIROBI, Kenya —  Fierce fighting in Rwanda’s capital shattered a four-day lull on Sunday, and rebels were reported advancing on the temporary seat of the interim government.

Diplomats said they expected Rwanda’s rebels to launch fresh onslaughts against government forces ahead of an expected vote by the U.N. Security Council this week on sending in peacekeeping troops.

Rebel artillery and mortar shells pounded areas near the airport, the Defense Ministry and other government offices, said Abdul Kabia, a U.N. spokesman in Kigali.

Government artillery barrages failed to dislodge guerrillas of the Rwandan Patriotic Front from their positions east of the city around the airport and in the surrounding hills.

A U.N. source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rebels had crossed the Akanyaru River just east of Gitarama and threatened to overrun the city, about 20 miles southwest of Kigali.

Government officials fled to Gitarama after an orgy of ethnic killing by Hutu militias began in Kigali on April 7, the day after Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprian Ntayamira, both Hutus, died in a mysterious plane crash near the capital’s airport.

It was not known whether the officials were still in Gitarama.

The mainly Tutsi rebel forces have been unable to stop the massacre of minority Tutsis and allies from Hutu-based opposition parties at the hands of extremist Hutu death squads.

Aid workers estimate up to half a million people have been killed.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on Tuesday on a proposal to send a force of up to 5,500 African troops to try to curb the bloodshed. But the United States wants the U.N. soldiers to be deployed along Rwanda’s borders to create havens for refugees. The United Nations wants them to secure Kigali airport first.