Burundi’s hand grenade wave
2009-06-11 10:13
Bujumbura - In post-conflict Burundi, hand grenades go for around one dollar on the black market and have become the weapon of choice for everybody, from petty criminals to disgruntled lovers.
In many of the region's countries, civil conflicts have become inextricably identified with a specific weapon.
Somalia's warlord-dominated nineties coined the word technical for gun-mounted pickups, Darfur's infamous Janjaweed militia took its name from the G-3 assault rifle and Kenya's post-poll unrest was marked by archery battles.
In Burundi, it's the grenade.
Stocks from a conflict that started in 1993 and was painstakingly laid to rest over the past two years have flooded the market and ended up in homes, across the small central African nation.
Real scourge
Barely a day goes by without a grenade incident being reported somewhere alongside traffic accidents in the country's newspapers.
The local human rights group Iteka describes the phenomenon as a "real scourge" and found in a recent study that 133 out of 616 people killed in acts of violence in 2008 were killed by grenades.
"For a criminal, the grenade is convenient because it guarantees many people are killed in very little time and allows the perpetrator to vanish without revealing himself," Iteka chairman David Nahimana said.
The latest string of deadly attacks confirms that the hit-and-run attack is indeed a preferred method.
"Two weeks ago, a man hurled a grenade through the bedroom window of a couple in Rugunga hills... The blast killed the man and his wife, who leave three small children behind them," Gihanga district official Gordien Kanjori said.
On August 24 last year, a man pulled the pin and tossed his deadly device straight into a room packed with people celebrating a wedding. The death toll of 18 was the highest recorded in such attacks.
Daily violence
The chief suspect was detained and handed a 10-year jail term in December because grenades were found in his home, but he averted a heavier sentence on grounds of lack of evidence.
"In many cases, we have noted that the use of grenades ensures criminals impunity... so people use them and abuse them," Nahimana explained.
"The grenades are not just used by hardened criminals but also by simple citizens who want to sort out a land dispute or a family feud," he said.
Kanjoro saw two explanations to Burundi's hand grenade epidemic.
"After a decade of civil war and years of daily violence, people have a tendency to resort to violence to solve their differences," he said.
He also said that the ready availability of grenades from restive neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo meant they would fetch 1 500 Burundian francs (just over a dollar) a piece.
Disarmament programmes
The country's last rebel movement, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), officially gave up the armed struggle earlier this year to become a political party, but disarmament programmes have yet to be implemented in full.
Varying estimates put the number of weapons owned illegally in Burundi at between 100 000 and 300 000.
Grenades are so pervading in Burundian society that accidents are inevitable.
On June 8, a man was killed and nine other people wounded in the streets of the capital Bujumbura.
"A demobilised former FNL fighter was walking around with a grenade in his hand... He let it slip, the grenade fell to the ground and exploded," district official Emile Ndayirinze said.
"According to the investigation, the explosion was accidental... We were told that this veteran went everywhere with a grenade in his hand and nobody really knew why."
- SAPA
