Rebels clash near Bujumbura
2003-09-08 18:44
Bujumbura - Burundi's two Hutu rebel movements are engaged in clashes near the capital of the tiny central African country, rebel and army sources said on Monday.
They said the clashes began on Sunday between fighters of the larger Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) - which has signed a peace pact with the government - and the National Liberation Forces (FNL), which has shunned negotiations to end a decade of ethnically based warfare.
"Fighting between our combatants and the FDD has been going on since yesterday (Sunday)" in Mubimbi and Mpanda, respectively 30km east and 12km north of the capital Bujumbura, FNL spokesperson Pasteur Habimana told AFP.
He said FNL forces prevailed in the fighting, the first between the two rebel groups since 1996. "We responded to the provocation of the FDD who executed eight combatants and six civilian members of the FNL on Friday," Habimana said.
Local officials and army spokesperson Colonel Augustin Nzabampema confirmed the clashes.
But the FDD denied that any fighting took place. "There are no clashes between the FDD and the FNL anywhere at all," said FDD spokesperson Major Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe.
The group's secretary general, Hussein Radjabu, said by telephone from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where new peace talks for the central African country are scheduled: "Today we are advancing straight towards peace. We won't accept people who get in the way of peace, whoever they are."
A twice-delayed regional summit on peace in Burundi is due to be held on Sunday in Dar es Salaam.
The FDD and the government signed a ceasefire in December last year, but it was not implemented, with each side accusing the other of violations.
Burundi's civil war broke out in 1993, pitting rebels from the Hutu majority against their Tutsi rivals, who control the military and held sway over the government until the interim power-sharing regime was installed in November 2001.
More than 300 000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the bloody conflict.
- SAPA