WASHINGTON - The Pentagon dispatched a 40-member team to Central Africa yesterday to assess supply and security needs, as Clinton administration officials said the United States is likely to participate in an international military rescue mission to aid Rwandan refugees in Zaire.
Senior officials said, however, that no U.S. forces would be committed to such an effort until crucial questions have been answered about how a force would be organized, who would lead it and what its objectives would be.
Under growing pressure from France, Canada and the United Nations to make a commitment to a mission to aid an estimated 1.1 million Rwandans in need of food and shelter, U.S. officials said they are not going to be stampeded into an operation that could blow up in their faces.
Nevertheless, U.S. officials stepped up planning for possible U.S. participation in a relief effort. A team from the U.S. Agency for International Development is attempting to cross into Zaire from Rwanda, the State Department said.
The Pentagon's announcement that an assessment team will be flown to Central Africa from Italy today said that "this deployment will enhance the military's ability to respond but does not represent a commitment by the U.S. to deploy other forces."
U.S. officials made little effort to disguise their irritation with France, which made a plea for an international force last week. In the American view, Paris did so without providing a credible deployment plan in a transparent effort to ingratiate itself with Africa at U.S. expense.
Canada, which has offered to lead a humanitarian mission and provide troops for it, sent a senior-level delegation here yesterday to discuss the proposed intervention with White House National Security Adviser Anthony Lake and other senior U.S. officials.
The United States agrees that such a mission is probably necessary, U.S. officials said, adding that if it occurs, America should participate - out of humanitarian obligation and because the United States has the kind of transport planes, generators, water-purifying units and other necessary equipment.
One official who was briefed on the talks said Washington is taking the position that "we are not prepared to go to Congress and the American people with a plan that is not fully thought out, without agreement on rules of engagement or force capability. We will not haphazardly throw U.S. troops into such a volatile situation."
U.S. officials continued to stress the complexity of the situation in eastern Zaire. While hundreds of thousands of people probably need help, U.S. officials said, the circumstances on the ground make it difficult to provide that aid without risking an armed conflict with Rwandan militias.
According to several U.S. officials, the biggest obstacle to deploying a relief mission is that the refugees remain largely under the control of former Rwandan officials and Hutu militia leaders who perpetrated the mass killings in 1994. Those Rwandans do not wish to return home because they fear reprisal or prosecution, and they have persuaded or intimidated the refugees - who have been their meal ticket for the past two years - to stay with them.
Rwandan Ambassador Theogene Rudasingwa said here yesterday that his country, like the United States, opposes any rescue mission that simply returns the refugees to their former camps, which the Hutu militias had used as bases to harass Rwanda. Unless the Hutu forces are neutralized, he said speaking at a forum, "the government of Rwanda is willing and ready to undertake to liberate Rwandese refugees from these criminals."
In light of the possibility of further violence, U.S. officials said, Washington wants to know exactly what an international force would be expected to do and where; what its exit strategy would be; how the legitimate refugees would be separated from their militia bosses;, and who would pay for the African military units envisioned in the Canadian plan.
Estimates of how long it would take to resolve these issues firmly enough to take the matter to President Clinton ranged from 24 hours to several days. With a decision pending on extending the U.S. peace-keeping commitment in Bosnia, officials said, the administration does not want to embark on a mission in Africa that would evoke memories of the 1993 Somalia debacle.
Canada itself would commit up to 1,500 troops, including a newly formed Disaster Assistance Response Team that could deliver military doctors, engineers and communications experts to Africa within 48 hours.