EU official accuses Zairean rebel forces of murdering up to 60,000 fleeing Hutus

REBEL forces led by Mr Laurent Kabila may have killed up to 60,000 Hutu refugees since the start of the conflict in eastern Zaire, according to reports reaching EU humanitarian relief officials.

The reports, as yet unconfirmed, show that a "hidden genocide" is taking place, the director of ECHO, the EU's humanitarian office, Mr Alberto Navarro, said in Dublin yesterday.

"The evidence is mounting that all male refugees within the territory controlled by Kabila are being killed systematically, leaving only the women and children alive," Mr Navarro claimed.

His remarks follow those of the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, who on Wednesday accused the rebel forces of "killing by starvation". The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, said yesterday that the attacks on Rwandan refugees appear to be part of a pattern of human rights abuses" by the rebels.

In Dublin, the director of GOAL, Mr John O'Shea, said the revelations of genocide should convince the Government to stop all grants to the government in Rwanda, which is widely believed to be backing the rebels.

"It is an open secret that the rebels are supported by the Rwandan government. It is an obscenity that Irish people's money may be contributing to the deaths of thousands of innocent women and children," Mr O'Shea said.

Concern said yesterday it had received authorisation from the rebels to go to Kisangani to look after unaccompanied children.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Joan Burton, said she was deeply concerned" about the plight of the refugees, some of whom have been subjected to attacks and killings". The Minister said she had been urging the EU presidency and governments to put pressure on the rebels to allow access by the international agencies to the refugees.

Meanwhile, peace talks between the rebels and representatives of President Mobutu Sese Seko continue to drag.

The President's envoy met South Africa's Deputy President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, to convey the Zairean President's response to an invitation to peace talks in South Africa, a South African government spokesman said yesterday.

Humanitarian organisations have had no access to camps at Kasese and Biaro south of Kisangani, Zaire's third largest city, for the past four days following murders, fighting and looting.

A UN team yesterday reported that up to 55,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees were missing from a camp at Kasese and advancing rebels denied any responsibility.

A rebel spokesman in Goma, a Kabila stronghold on the border with Rwanda, rejected all charges of genocide and blamed the Hutu militia for any deaths which had occurred.