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UN staff attacked in Burundi
27/03/2008 08:45 - (SA)
Bujumbura - Former locally-recruited United Nations employees in Burundi smashed up a car carrying three of one-time colleagues on Wednesday during a labour dispute, a UN spokesperson said.
About 50 protesters "attacked a mission vehicle - bursting its tyres using a wooden plank with nails hammered through it - smashed its windows and tried to drag out the three passengers," spokesperson Amadou Ousmane said.
"Soldiers charged with the mission's security dispersed the crowd, arresting three of the demonstrators who have been detained by police," he added.
The protesters - former employees or contractors - wanted their contracts renewed or, failing that, pay-offs. Some 150 staff was involved in the protest, and several protests had taken place over the last two years.
Ousmane added: "It's not the first time they have mounted a protest. It's the first to result in violence. We have tasked a commission to look into their grievances."
The UN civil mission in Burundi, ranked as the globe's third poorest country by the World Bank, was working to contain a refugee food crisis.
The World Food Programme appealed this month for financial aid to feed some 90 000 Burundian refugees who were sheltering in Tanzania and expect to return to the central African country this year.
Burundi had been ravaged by a civil war that had claimed more than 300 000 lives since 1993.
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