U.S. RESISTS U.N. LEADER'S CALL FOR TROOPS TO AID ZAIRE REFUGEES.

Byline: Barbara Crossette The New York Times

As a colossal refugee crisis in Central Africa intensified Friday, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called for the urgent dispatch of an international military force to aid about 1 million refugees, many in danger of dying of hunger or thirst.

But calls for immediate foreign intervention foundered on resistance from the United States, which stalled Security Council action Friday. While the French and German proposal to send troops got strong support in the Security Council, the Americans said they still held out hope for a cease-fire that would allow aid operations to resume without outside military protection.

``We are confronted by a new genocide,'' Boutros-Ghali told reporters Friday. ``I will call it genocide by starvation.''

He called on the world ``to act, and to act immediately'' to save the refugees, mostly Hutu, who fled Rwanda two years ago for Zaire and are now on the move again.

But the Americans said foreign intervention could aggravate the fighting and suffering on the border.

``The `cowboys' just blowing into town is not going to solve the problem,'' said Nicholas Burns, the State Department spokesman. Burns expressed the administration's apprehensions that the French proposal would mean re-establishing refugee camps in Zaire, which he said became breeding grounds for he conflict raging now.

President Clinton's senior foreign policy aides met for 90 minutes Friday to discuss the crisis, but the meeting was adjourned for the weekend with no decision on what kind of force the United States would support. The administration has never considered sending troops to the region but only contributing services like assistance with logistics, communications and airlifts.

After the meeting, an official said the administration still hopes intervention will not be needed. The official said the situation is confused and no one has a clear sense of what assistance is required.

On Friday night, Doctors Without Borders, a French medical aid group, reported that 10 agencies had been permitted by the Rwandan government to cross the border into Zaire to provide aid and assess the situation.

At a meeting with the Security Council and in a letter to its members, Boutros-Ghali supported the French and German proposal to send an international force of 4,000 to 5,000 troops to the region to open airports, guard relief workers and supplies, protect refugees, and prevent camps from becoming staging areas for more fighting. It is too late for a routine U.N. peacekeeping operation, he said.

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Photo

Photo: A rebel beats women looking for food and sleeping mats in a United Nations warehouse in Goma, Zaire.

Associated Press