U.N. Aid Workers Pull Back In Rwanda

Citing a deadly surge of attacks on humanitarian aid groups, the United Nations withdrew hundreds of expatriate and Rwandan relief workers from western Rwanda in armed convoys Wednesday and sharply curtailed operations in the rest of this increasingly tense country.

The emergency pullout from four provinces followed the brutal ambush Tuesday of five U.N. human rights staff members, including a veteran British aid worker who was shot to death, a Cambodian field officer who was beheaded with a machete and three Rwandan assistants who were shot or killed by grenades.

In all, suspected anti-government insurgents have killed six expatriates in less than three weeks in western Rwanda. They are the first foreigners to be slain here since the end of ethnic genocide and a murderous civil war in 1994 drew thousands of aid workers to help rebuild the shattered central African nation.