Rebel attacks delay re-vote
2005-06-07 10:10
Bujumbura - Overnight attacks in and around Bujumbura by Burundi's lone remaining rebel group put re-votes for key local elections on hold in six violence-hit districts, officials said.
The strikes blamed on the National Liberation Forces (FNL) included shelling over several Bujumbura neighbourhoods and several attacks on government positions on the outskirts of the capital, the army said.
No one was reported killed but property damage was reported and polling stations in Bujumbura Rural and Buganza provinces — on the periphery of the capital — where re-voting had been set to begin on Tuesday morning remain closed, officials said.
"The FNL shelled several districts of the capital on Monday night," said army spokesperson Adolphe Manirakiza. "At the same time, they attacked several military positions on the outskirts. Up to now, there is only property damage."
An attempt to scare voters
He said the attacks appeared aimed at scaring voters away from the polling stations where the re-votes were planned following early closures due to violence in the initial elections last week.
"We think they are shootings of intimidation to prevent the population from going to vote," Manirakiza said.
Re-votes in Friday's crucial municipal polls — war-ravaged Burundi's first for elected office since ethnic conflict engulfed the tiny central African nation in 1993 — were to have been held on Tuesday in 133 polling stations in Bujumbura Rural and Buganza.
But at 07:30 on Tuesday, 90 minutes after they should have opened, all 133 remained closed, according to the army and local officials.
Bujumbura Rural is the stronghold of the FNL, which signed a tentative truce with the government last month and had pledged not to disrupt the election, but said it would retaliate if attacked.
In separate incidents, in the adjacent Bubanza province and in the capital on Friday, one person was killed by a grenade blast and 17 others, including a United Nations peacekeeper, wounded during Friday's vote.