INTERNATIONAL concern over Zaire's rebel movement mounted yesterday amid allegations that massive" human rights abuses are being committed in rebel-held areas, turning them into a "real slaughterhouse".
The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Action, Ms Emma Bonino, said in Brussels that "massive human rights violations" are taking place in rebel- held areas of eastern Zaire. There was "incomprehensible carnage in these regions and they are being transformed into a real slaughterhouse", she added.
Ms Bonino, who made a trip to the region in February, charged that leaders of Zaire's rebel movement had "lost control" of their troops or "are directly involved in hunting down Hutu refugees".
She also accused the mainly Tutsi authorities in Rwanda, who have hacked Mr Laurent Kabila's rebel force, of doing nothing to stop the abuses.
In a veiled reference to Mr Kabila, the commissioner said: "Somebody with this kind of record has no place at the head of a country. Whoever is behind this massacre should not be given responsibility if we want peace in Zaire."
Until recently Mr Kabila, a revolutionary fighter from the 1960s, enjoyed an uncritical press. However, since allegations of abuses by his forces surfaced recently, the number of voices raising doubts about his democratic credentials has risen.
Allegations of abuse range from summary executions to general maltreatment of the refugees, thousands of whom have spent recent months on an arduous trek through thick forest in an attempt to avoid the rebel army. An estimated 50,000 are still unaccounted for.
In Geneva the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) called on the Security Council for help after reporting evidence that refugee children waiting to be repatriated to Rwanda had suffered bullet and machete wounds.
The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, which is organising the repatriation of tens of thousands of Rwandan Hutus, has reported similar rights violations, including mass killings in the area.
Concern is also high over the way thousands of refugees have been carried to Kisangani airfield from where they are flown to Rwanda. At the weekend 91 refugees died after being crushed in an overcrowded rail carriage.
Yesterday it was reported that two members of a UN team created to investigate the allegations had reached Shaba, a rebel-held town near the scene of the reported atrocities.
The rebels have denied they are impeding UN efforts to repatriate Rwandan refugees.
Some 1,200 refugees arrived safely in Kisangani yesterday in the first such trip since more than 90 were killed in a stampede two days ago.
"We had full control of the train and the whole operation went very smoothly," a spokesman for the UNHCR said in Kisangani, after the train arrived without problems from Biaro camp 41 km to the south.
Meanwhile, reports of fighting east of Kinshasa remained confused. Rebel sources said fighting 200km east of the capital with government forces was "heavy".
However, government officials claimed that 500 rebels had been killed in clashes at Kikwit, a key town captured by rebels last week much further to the east.