Some 67 dead in Burundi ahead of Mandela visit
Some 67 dead in Burundi ahead of Mandela visit
BUJUMBARA (AFP): At least 67 people have died as fighting
between Burundi's army and rebels flared only days before chief
peace mediator Nelson Mandela is due to visit the country in the
latest bid to end seven years of civil war.
Rebels intensified their attacks on Tuesday, firing their guns
towards houses from a hill overlooking a suburb in the south of
capital Bujumbara, though without causing any injuries.
A minibus was also ambushed and its passengers mugged some 15
kilometers from the capital, leaving one passenger with a bullet
wound.
"The security situation is precarious these days in Bujumbara-
Rural (Province)," army spokesman Col. Longin Minani said on
national radio Tuesday.
"With each visit by a personality or major event in the
capital, the genocide-minded terrorists try to make people talk
about them and get themselves a bit of publicity," he added.
Former South African president Mandela, now chief mediator in
the peace process aimed at bringing an end to the civil war
between Hutu rebels and Tutsi authorities, is due to visit
Burundi on Friday.
His imminent arrival appears to have sparked a fresh round of
blood-letting in a conflict that has claimed an estimated 200,000
lives since 1993.
On Sunday, at least seven people were killed in a rebel ambush
15 kilometers northeast of Bujumbara. Minani later confirmed that
the assailants "selectively killed the Tutsis."
But the worst outbreak of violence was reserved for the
southern Makamba province, on the frontier with Tanzania, where
according to Minani rebels forces "suffered heavy losses,
especially in the Nyanza-Lac district, with around 40 killed, 28
injured and 20 firearms recovered."
The Burundian defense ministry confirmed Tuesday that rebels
had carried out a massacre Sunday of 16 refugees at a camp in
Mabanda and three more in the camp at Muyange in the southern
Nyanza-Lac district.
One further victim has reportedly died in his hospital bed
after failing to recover from numerous wounds.
Heavy gunfire was also heard Sunday night in the vicinity of
eastern Bujumbura, while the sounds of crossfire in Bujumbura-
Rural Province were audible on several occasions in the capital
over the weekend.
A number of aid organizations have suspended their work in the
province as a result of the fighting, humanitarian sources
announced.
Col. Minani nevertheless insisted that the government would
guarantee "safety on main roads and in the refugee camps, and
encourage collaboration between the forces of order and the
people, whatever their ethnicity."