Rwandan Peacekeeping Plan Scrapped

The United Nations has given up efforts to raise a multinational peacekeeping force to protect 1.2 million Rwandan refugees in camps in Zaire, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.

Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali sent out appeals to 60 governments, including the United States, for troops or equipment for the peacekeeping mission. He did not receive a single positive response, U.N. officials said.

His staff then devised a more limited plan that called for Zaire to provide 2,000 soldiers to be trained and supervised by a few dozen U.N. officers. But no government was willing to provide troops even for this small corps, U.N. officials said. This week Boutros-Ghali will propose a last-ditch plan to the Security Council for the use of 2,000 Zairian troops assisted by a small group of civilian advisers from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.