Citation
BUJUMBURA, Oct 27 (AFP) - U.N. special envoy James Jonah was due here Wednesday to try to restore order in Burundi in the aftermath of a military coup which unleashed bloodletting in the countryside and sent hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighbouring states.
A government communique broadcast on the radio late on Tuesday asked airport staff to report for work. Other civil servants were told to await further instructions before resuming work.
Jonah, undersecretary-general for political affairs, was flying in from Somalia. Control tower sources at Kigali, capital of neighbouring Rwanda, said the airport here remained closed to commercial flights and would be opened only to let Jonah land.
Prime Minister Sylvie Kanigi, who with some ministers has taken refuge in the French embassy, issued orders for the Tutsi-dominated army to return to barracks. She vowed "severe punishment" for those who mounted last Thursday's coup, in which President Melchior Ndadaye, the first member of the Hutu majority to hold the post, was murdered.
She said the country's borders and the airport would soon be reopened. But Justice Minister Fulgence Bakara, who has sought refuge in Kigali, was quoted by Rwandan radio as saying no date could be set for the opening yet because the government had no control over the security forces.
Health Minister Jean Minani who has also escaped to Kigali and formed a government-in-exile appealed earlier Tuesday for foreign intervention "to end the massacre" of Hutus by the military which is largely manned by the minority Tutsi tribe.
dn-at/jaw/ns
AFP AFP
