New Zealand women killed in Uganda

By the New Zealand Press Association

Two New Zealand women and six foreigners were hacked to death by Rwandan rebels in the east African country of Uganda yesterday.

The husband of one of the women escaped the massacre, officials said. Rhonda Avis, 28, of Auckland and Michelle Strathern, 26, of Timaru, were among eight foreigners killed, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman James Funnell said this morning.

Mrs Avis' husband Mark Avis, 28, escaped death with five other foreigners, who had visited the area to see rare gorillas in Bwindi National Park. Four Britons and two Americans were also killed. Of the dead four were men and four women. The victims had apparently been hacked and clubbed to death. One of the women had been raped before being killed.

Neither Mr Avis' parents nor Ms Strathern's parents wanted to talk to the media today. Ms Strathern's mother said she had had her daughter's death confirmed only about 8.10am today and did not want to talk further, other than to confirm Ms Strathern's name and age.

Mr Avis' family asked that the media respect their privacy and give them a day to grieve. Foreign Affairs Minister Don McKinnon said today officials here were
still trying to piece together what happened.

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said New Zealand would seek justice for the victims.

Mr McKinnon said in a statement the killings had been "appalling and senseless".

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working with its counterparts to ascertain the exact circumstances of the killings.

"These remain unclear, but preliminary reports indicate that the Hutu rebels were responsible. We would obviously be most concerned if the hostages died as a result of an Ugandan army efforts to rescue them.

"I will be seeking further clarification of this from my Ugandan counterpart in Kampala next week," he said.

"I understand there were some attempts to (mount a rescue) but whether the rescue actually occurred I don't know because there has been denials from the Ugandan Government," Mr McKinnon told breakfast television today.

"But clearly, with 100 plus rebels ... there's no real discipline amongst this lot at all and this has to be our concern."

Mr McKinnon said people travelling to the region had to accept, however, that while they could travel to Africa and be quite safe, there was always the chance of violence.

"We have to understand, this part of the world is a very lawless area ... you've still got the remnants of civil war in the Congo, it's still very unsettled in Rwanda, so whichever country you're in it's not very safe."

Mr McKinnon said people contacted officials here to ask if travel in the region was safe, but there was no easy answer.

"We say you can travel through Africa and it's totally safe but then, quite randomly, you can be caught up in something. New Zealanders, for good or bad, travel all over the world ... and sometimes this happens."

He was wary of this country issuing a warning against travelling to Africa, however.

"My concern is, if I was to say don't travel in Africa ... we've had New Zealanders arrested in Egypt, people bludgeoned in South Africa: you really have to be very concerned about the lack of good security in many parts of Africa and any New Zealanders travelling to Africa should understand that."

Mr McKinnon said he would "strongly advise" New Zealanders thinking of travelling to the region to take extreme care and to be conscious of the uncertain security environment in several parts of the continent.

Previously, he had told people wanting to visit the area to try and stay in a group, but after yesterday's tragedy, that clearly did not guarantee their safety.

New Zealanders intending to travel to central Africa should contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to seek travel advice.

The bodies, which had been retrieved from the area, were expected to be formally identified tomorrow.-NZPA

Pictured: Mark and Rhonda Avis before they left on their overseas trip. PICTURE/OAMARU MAIL