Burundi massacre suspect flees
2008-01-18 20:28
Bujumbura - The main suspect in a 2006 massacre of 31 people in eastern Burundi has fled the country to Tanzania, a rights group and army officials said on Friday.
"We have evidence that... Vital Bangirinama, the main culprit in the July 2006 Muyinga massacre has fled Burundi and is currently in Tanzania," Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, head of the Aprodeh rights group, told AFP.
The information was confirmed by another rights group, Bangirinama's family and army sources.
"We condemn the consistent attempts to protects this senior officer. There have been three arrest warrants against him in October 2006, July and October 2007, but they were never followed up," Mbonimpa told reporters.
In July 2006, civilians accused of supporting the National Liberation Forces - Burundi's last active rebel group - were detained in the Mukoni military base.
Thirty-one of them were eventually executed and their bodies dumped in the Ruvubu river. According to several rights groups and sources close to the investigation, Bangirinama personally supervised the massacre.