KIGALI: Some 1800 United Nations peacekeepers swept through

crime-ridden camps in south-west Rwanda yesterday in a fruitless drive

to disarm Hutu refugees and round up suspected killers.

The main suspects and their weapons had vanished, and none of the

heavy weapons the UN dragnet hoped to capture had been found.

The UN action was prompted by a surge of killings among refugees. It

is feared that former members of Hutu death squads are eliminating

witnesses who might point them out to the civil war's mainly-Tutsi

victors. Aid workers criticised the action as saying it could escalate

violence in the camps and provoke a fresh exodus to neighbouring

countries.