FEUD ERUPTS INTO WAR BETWEEN ZAIRE, RWANDA.

Byline: The New York Times

A simmering conflict erupted into open warfare between Zaire and Rwanda on Friday as the two countries traded heavy artillery barrages. And ethnic Tutsi from Zaire, bolstered by support from Rwanda's Tutsi-led government, closed in on the key Zairian city of Goma.

The fighting this week has pushed an additional half-million ethnic Hutu refugees out of United Nations camps in Zaire, sending them wandering in a war zone that is increasingly isolated from sources of food and medicine. Zairian Tutsi fighters, at war with their government, battled for control of Goma's airport, which is a supply lifeline for more than 700,000 refugees.

As night fell and shells illuminated the evening sky over Goma like sheet lightning, it was clear from here, on the Rwanda side, that Goma was under siege. For much of the day, the thunder of artillery and the rapid hammering of machine-gun fire echoed across the frontier, while Rwandan gunboats patrolled Goma's lake front and a line of howitzers fired into the city from the hills on the Rwandan side of the border.

There were reports from diplomats, and officials of the United Nations and other agencies that Rwandan government troops had pushed across the border into Goma.

Rwandan military officials denied again Friday that their troops had invaded Zaire. But whether Rwanda was directly involved or not, the offensive by the Zairian Tutsi has achieved what Rwanda has been longing to see for nearly two years - the expulsion of ethnic Hutu from refugee camps near its border, where they have been living for two years.

The local Tutsi, who come from families who have lived in Zaire for centuries, have been fighting Zairian troops for more than two weeks. The revolt started after Zairian officials disenfranchised Zaire's Tutsi, stripped them of their citizenship and tried to drive them into Tutsi-led Rwanda.

As the shelling intensified Friday, streams of people were fleeing southward from Goma, taking what they could salvage of their households, while soldiers fought street battles with Tutsi guerrillas, the Associated Press reported.

In Goma, about 100 relief workers were pinned down in a compound belonging to the Red Cross, where they were gathered in preparation for an evacuation, United Nations officials said.