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NAIROBI, Oct 23 (AFP) - The head of Burundi's self-styled national salvation committee, installed following the ouster of President Melchior Ndadaye, said Saturday he was ready to hand over power to "democratic institutions" in return for an amnesty for coup-makers.
Speaking in a news conference broadcast on Radio Burundi and retransmitted by Rwandan radio, Francois Ngeze said he did not know what had happened to Ndadaye, reportedly killed by the putschists in Thursday's coup.
Ngeze said he would set up an enquiry to discover the fate of Ndadaye, who became the first president from the majority Hutu tribe when he won the country's first multi-party elections four months ago.
Burundi ambassadors to Nairobi and the United Nations in Geneva said Friday that the president and other government officials had been killed.
Ngeze, a former interior minister under Ndadaye's predecessor Pierre Buyoya, said the inquiry's findings would be revealed in the next few days.
He admitted that deaths had occurred, which he "regretted."
Some of the 200,000 refugees who have reportedly crossed into Rwanda have told journalists that the Tutsi-dominated army is rounding up civilians from the Hutu majority and killing them.
at/cj/job AFP AFP
