Citation
The United Nations yesterday launched a diplomatic effort to stop
fighting between members of the Hutu and Tutsi tribes from spreading
throughout Burundi after 30 people were killed yesterday in the
capital, Bujumbura.
Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, UN special envoy to Burundi, said that Bujumbura
was being held hostage by a minority of Tutsi (many of them former
soldiers) who do not want to see a peaceful settlement reached between
the government and the opposition
.
Yesterday afternoon Mr Abdallah sent to Burundi in October to mediate
between the two ethnic groups after six weeks of killing called an
emergency meeting of political leaders to prevent a return to
widespread ethnic strife.
In any other country what is happening here would be called terrorism.
The whole country is being blackmailed by a small group who fear
prosecution for their role in the murder of the President,
Mr Abdallah
said.
Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was elected President last June. He was
murdered by Tutsi army officers in a failed coup in October. Hutu
vigilantes immediately began murdering Tutsis, while the army and Tutsi
militia responded in kind against Hutus. The result was a death toll of
between 100,000 and 150,000, and the flight of 300,000 refugees to
Zaire, Tanzania and Rwanda.
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that 30 people
had been killed and another 40 wounded in clashes yesterday. Twenty
were killed and 20 wounded on Sunday when two buses from the south of
the country were attacked by mobs as they arrived in the capital.
Bujumbura's streets were empty yesterday and businesses closed. Rival
groups were fighting in Kamenge, Musaga and Jape districts. Grenades
and rifles are being used in the fighting. Grenades are a new
development and most worrying,
said Patrick Fuller, spokesman for the
Red Cross.
Mr Abdallah said that barricades had been set up in the city.If you
drive up to a crossroads and don't turn away, they smash your car.
The Hutu-dominated parliament recently elected Cyprien Ntaryamira, the
former Agriculture Minister, as President after a deal negotiated
between the nine main political groups by the UN. But the
Tutsi-controlled Supreme Court refused to ratify his appointment. The
subsequent dismissal of the court last week touched off a resurgence of
ethnic violence among rival youths.
High death tolls from dysentery and measles in the refugee camps of
Zaire, Rwanda and Tanzania have forced many Barundi to return to their
homeland. But yesterday Shelly Pitterman, representative of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said he feared that a new wave
of people would start fleeing the country again.
This is very, very discouraging,
he went on. The fighting in
Bujumbura will seriously disrupt our relief efforts. Starving people
will have to wait for food in the camps, if they get it at all.
In Addis Ababa, Salim Salim, Secretary-General of the Organisation of
African Unity, who visited Burundi last week, told a meeting of Foreign
Ministers that the country remains tense, fragile and potentially
explosive
. OAU efforts to reconcile military and civilian officials in
the wake of the coup attempt have led to many misunderstandings, some
real, some whipped up for political expediency
.
Mr Salim reported that the latest round of ethnic fighting had
decreased but not ended in Burundi. He said that plans by the OAU to
send a 100-member military team to protect civilian leaders, including
President Ntaryamira, have been delayed by opposition from some of the
military and politicians. Opponents of the plan argued that the
presence of foreign troops would violate the country's sovereignty.
Mr Salim said other African countries that were suffering or faced with
internal strife were Somalia, Congo, Angola, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan,
Togo and Zaire. Thousands of people have been killed in these countries
and millions more displaced or forced to flee their homelands in recent
years due to fighting that was caused by ethnic-based political
conflicts.
By Sam Kiley, Africa Correspondent.
