European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 10, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                S4s Vince Crawley a starving Soma too child Walls for food Al a red Cross intensive feeding Center in ban Era in Lieuary 1993. Somaliland continued from Page 15. Countries Are always fuzzy but the upper end of this year s Slaughter is estimated at 500,000 or More which is roughly half the Tutsi population. Yet the Tutsi army managed to gain control of the situation and attacked the Hutu Force forcing them and millions of other huts who were afraid of reprisals to flee. These Are cultures As Complex As our own and cannot be adequately explained in a few paragraphs. But that is the Short version of Why television screens suddenly filled with images of hundreds of thousands of refugees huddled just beyond the rwandan Border. And As Field armies have known since the beginning of Mankind disease thrives when huge numbers of people Are suddenly thrown together. Epidemics first cholera now dysentery have killed an estimated 25,000 mostly Hutu refugees in the last three weeks. The faces of death Are different in Rwanda than they were in Somalia. " the somali died the slow and gradual death of. Starvation in an arid Brush land with gaunt faces on top. Of skin covered skeletons. If the rwandans survive cholera and dysentery but Don t return to their comparatively Lush farmlands they will eventually face famine. But for now they Are Well nourished. H there s no difference Between the ones walking _ around and the ones dying except for disease said Peter Morley an australian doctor with the Minnesota based american refugee committee. The comparative Good health the Lack of starvation Are quite a bit different than most of the places i be seen said Morley who has spent years fighting famine in Africa. Morley stopped at the stifling squalor of the Mug Unga refugee Camp outside coma human beings were. Packed in every available space inside the cholera tents and he spent half an hour at a table covered with More than dozen infants All under 6 months old All without parents All with  a world gone berserk with bodies piled on the roadsides like garbage and diseases ravaging the survivors what can one person do save a life a m Nute Morley answers crisply if you Haven t saved a life within ten minutes you re not doing your  but afterwards he has to renege on his Promise. After sticking an intravenous tube into a baby s head and cradling it in his hands for Many Long minutes Morley admits that the child will Likely die. He has not saved a life. Only offered some Comfort. Rwanda reminds Many of Somalia. Still paralysed by the tragic military events of last october in Somalia and forgetting the earlier humanitarian Triumph there the few voices m the Clinton administration and Congress calling for positive action were overwhelmed said Robert b. Oakley special envoy to Somalia for presidents Bush and Clinton. Conventional Wisdom understandably warned against new peace keeping operations in such a confused violent situation Oakley wrote in a recent Washington Post Colour in. Now with american troops Back in Africa in Force the humanitarian capability and commitment of . Military forces is again showing itself to be Awe inspiring Oakley said. Still it will take months to stabilize conditions and persuade the refugees to return Home Oakley said. During this period Large scale humanitarian assistance must be sustained. Only the West can make this  american troops come with More caution than they did in Somalia where 25,000 marines and soldiers tried to restore order and open the roads. _ the troops in Rwanda Are not serving As peacemakers. Their Mission is not to build governments or Hunt for War lords. Still National Security adviser Anthony Lake said the area is potentially a Tough  and Cen. John m. Shalikashvil chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said that in situations like Rwanda there is always Sot nhe danger that someone will take a Potshot at  rwandan rebel soldiers still carrying weapons wander the Countryside around coma and gunfire is a nightly occurrence. In Daylight zairian soldiers based in the coma area and with no role in the refugee Effort roam the Camps and extort what Little Money and possessions the refugees have left. Poorly paid they Stop anyone who looks Gullible and demand bribes. But Rwanda is not Somalia. At a press conference in the ghost town capital of Kigali Rwanda s prime minister Faustin Twahir Amunga said there is one crucial difference Between his country and Somalia we have a government  , for now at Lea to Rwanda is not As intense As Somalia. There Are just Plain fewer weapons the chaos. Is less threatening. Why Don t you do something demands a kenyan at Nairobi Airport staging area for Many of the tons of daily humanitarian flights in the Region. Nairobi is Halfway Between coma and Mogadishu  it is where the two tragedies come together. Roughly half the Relief flights Are bound for remnants of the . Mission in Somalia the other half for the More recent disaster of the rwandan refugee Camps. You americans. You let african leaders do whatever they want. You let them go crazy with the  the kenyan is finishing a night shift. He s tired angry. Then Only when there is a catastrophe do you step in he says. What about Kenya Kenya is Rwanda in five years. Why Don t you help us now so that we Are not  he laments Kenya s downhill politics and says that Bush was much better for Africa than Clinton. We used to fear Bush. But now we Are not fearing  he erupts into a smile before saying fare Well. Don t use my name. I will be  there Are other countries South of the Sahara that Are in turmoil. Burundi also has much of the same ethnic turmoil As its neighbor Rwanda. I think it s fair to say that the country is at least on a knife Edge even if it s not ready to explode said Mike Pottridge Africa program director for amnesty International. V the presidents of both countries died in the april plane crash leading to the latest round of civil War in Rwan Dju by comparison Only about 2,000 Burundi have killed each other this year. But said Dottridge it could go either  by and Large the rwandan fighting is Over and the people Are concerned with a different kind of War with an enemy that can Only be seen in microscopes and graveyards. Protect our town blares a Loudspeaker truck pushing through the hordes of refugees who have overwhelmed the Small City of coma. Protect our town. It is being attacked by Many  Rwanda is not Somalia. But in the end for the americans who have gone there both places will have left equally deep Marks that will Likely remain fora Long tune to come. Is Vine Crawley a cup of clean water sits beside an ailing rwandan Mother and child last month at the cholera tent Hospital at the Mug Unga refugee Camp near coma. Rwanda size 10,169 Square mites slightly smaller than Maryland population 8.2 million arable land 29 percent labor Force agricultural 93 percent Ufa expectancy 51 male55 female literacy 50 percent per capita income $300 per year birthrate 52 per 1,000 religion roman Catholic 65 percent protestant 9 percent Muslim 1 percent traditional african beliefs 25 percent people Hutu 85 percent Tutsi 14 percent. Twa pygmy 1 percent Gross Domestic product $2,1 billion paved Roada 285 Miles t Somalia size 246,300 Square Miles slightly smaller than Texas population 7.25 million arable land 2 percent labor Force nomadic herders 70 percent use expectancy 56 male57 female literacy 24 percent per capita income $210 per year birth rate 46 per 1.000 religion Sunn Muslim 99 percent people ethnic somali 85 percent Bantu 15 percent Gross Domestic product $1.7 billion paved Roada 1,450 Miles figures Are As of 1992 aps is a Vince Crawley teen age hired guns serve As guards in Bat of Somalia last november. At right rebel soldiers cruise parrs of captured Kigali Rwanda in june. A the stars and stripes 17 16 the stars and stripes wednesday August 10,1994