'Targeted' killings in Burundi
2010-10-17 10:13
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Bujumbura - At least 22 members of a former rebel group whose leader recently went into hiding were murdered in targeted killings last month, the head of a rights group said on Saturday.
"What's happening in Burundi is very alarming," said Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, president of the Association for the Protection of Detainees and Human Rights.
"Many people are arrested by the police, then they disappear and are found dead some time afterward. In September alone we counted 22 victims of extra-judicial executions."
Mbonimpa said all 22 were militants of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), which joined the government last year but its leader Agathon Rwasa fled after local polls in May which the opposition accused the government of rigging.
Mbonimpa pointed the finger at "agents" of the police or the internal intelligence services.
Rumours
Several hundred members of other parties had been arrested since May and around 120 were being held for alleged offences against state security, he said.
Police refused to comment while the intelligence service spokesperson, Telesphore Bigirimana, flatly denied the allegations.
The UN secretary general's outgoing special representative to the country, Charles Petrie, said Friday "the situation is extremely worrying" in Burundi.
"The risk of a return to violence should not be underestimated..." he said.
Renewed violence in Burundi in the past few weeks has left more than 30 dead, amid rumours that new pockets of rebellion are growing in the country.
Authorities say they suspect two opposition groups whose leaders have gone into hiding of being behind the attacks, while other opposition parties say President Pierre Nkurunziza's government is becoming intolerant.
"The thing I regret most is having seen the opposition withdraw from the electoral process," Petrie said. "It was a bet, but a bet that did not succeed and they (the opposition) failed the people..." he added.
Burundi has only just emerged from a 13-year civil war that left more than 300 000 dead.
- SAPA
