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Burundi: Fighting continues
08/07/2003 13:42 - (SA)
Ngozi - Heavy fighting between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-dominated army using mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles continued for a second day in southern suburbs of Bujumbura on Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee their homes.
It was not clear how many people had been killed in the fighting, but an army officer, who did not want to be identified, said he had seen more than 50 corpses in the suburbs of Musaga, Kinindo, Kanyosha.
Army spokesperson Colonel Augustin Nzabampema said government troops had killed 15 insurgents since the fighting erupted early on Monday when rebels of the largest faction of the National Liberation Forces, or FNL, attacked the central African nation's capital.
He said two soldiers had been wounded, but gave no details of civilian casualties.
Rebel spokesperson Pasteur Habimana said six insurgents had been killed.
The army said it had driven the rebels to the outskirts of Bujumbura late on Monday, but the rebels appeared to have moved back into southern parts of the city early Tuesday.
The insurgents also fired mortars on the capital from the hills surrounding Bujumbura.
The army retaliated by attacking rebel positions with helicopter gunships.
The rebel attack was the first on the capital since April, when insurgents fired dozens of rockets at Bujumbura.
The main market was closed on Tuesday as thousands of people fled into the town centre. Two main highways leading out of the city were also closed.
The civil war erupted in October 1993 after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a member of the Hutu majority.
At least 200 000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the conflict.
Despite being in the minority, Tutsis have effectively controlled the tiny central African nation for all but a few months since independence in 1962.
A transitional administration took office November 1, 2001 after Hutu and Tutsi political parties signed a power-sharing accord that was supposed to end the war. But the rebels did not take part in that peace process and fighting continued.
Two small rebel factions signed ceasefire agreements last October, but the main faction of the FNL, which operates in the hills surrounding Bujumbura, has refused to halt fighting.
The largest rebel group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, signed a cease-fire in December, but it has also continued fighting.
The three-year transitional government entered its second and final phase on May 1 when Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, took over the presidency from Pierre Buyoya, a member of the Tutsi minority.
The main rebel factions said the transition would not affect their positions.
Habimana, the rebel spokesperson, said the insurgents would not leave the capital until the Tutsi-dominated army agreed to hold talks with the rebels.
Nzabampema declined to discuss the rebel demands.
"Right now we are fighting and this is political speculation. I'm not willing to speculate," he said.
- AP
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