Nations Criticized For Slow Response To Refugee Crisis

An EU official blasted the international community Thursday for moving too slow on sending a military relief force to Central Africa, warning that hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees risk starvation, disease and massacres.

Emma Bonino, the EU’s humanitarian affairs commissioner, said she was encouraged that half a million refugees are safely back in Rwanda from camps in eastern Zaire. But she said little was known about more than 500,000 others, who apparently have retreated further into Zaire.

“There is a black hole there,” she told the European Parliament’s development commission, which will discuss aid to the region today.

Since the Rwandan refugees began returning home last week, international enthusiasm for mounting a military operation there has waned.

Today, military officials from nations offering to join a proposed multinational force to protect the refugees meet in Stuttgart, Germany, to decide the mission’s fate.

Bonino accused the international community of being unwilling to take the necessary military risks to deliver humanitarian aid.

“How many lives have to be at risk before you have agreement on a multinational force?” she asked. “I wonder if the color of their skin reduces their value?”

She said the EU has delivered $680 million in aid to the region. The EU has no military function.

Meanwhile, Canada called for an emergency meeting of countries to organize aid to the Rwandan refugees. Saturday’s meeting in Geneva will include officials from the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia as well as relief agencies and international organizations.