British troops will help Rwanda refugees go home
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Your support makes all the difference.BRITISH TROOPS will be sent to Rwanda within the next two weeks to help in the aftermath of the civil war, which has left thousands dead and millions displaced.
Malcolm Rifkind, the Secretary of State for Defence, said the decision to deploy the troops would be taken after reports from a UK team in Rwanda, but he denied Britain had responded too late. David Clark, the Labour defence spokesman, said the delay had cost lives.
'That is quite unfair,' Mr Rifkind said. 'We respond to requests from the UN. The UN have in the last couple of days indicated the particular help they think the UK might be able to give.'
Ministry of Defence sources said the number of troops involved would be in the hundreds, not thousands.
Mr Rifkind said the troops would be there purely to give practical help. 'There is no possibility of any British military personnel being involved in any combat operations,' he said on BBC radio.
The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, the Royal Engineers and the Royal Army Medical Corps are expected to be sent to repair bridges, reconnect water supplies, and re-establish the infrastructure to encourage more Rwandans to return home from disease-ridden refugee camps.
The announcement came as Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, Minister for Overseas Aid, was visibly shocked by her visit to one of the camps at Kitale, 35 miles north of the Zairean border town of Goma.
'This is appalling. It defies . . . reason,' she said, holding a handkerchief to her face against the stench from dead and dying. 'Clean water will save a number, but the only thing that will save the majority is to make conditions better for them in Rwanda to get them back.'
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