Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bujumbura (Fides Service) - “From where we are we cannot hear the artillery firing, but for five days National Liberation Front rebels FNL have been attacking Bujumbura” a local missionary told Fides Service. “The whole city lives in fear. Man to man fighting is concentrated in the south of the city but many other districts are affected by bombing. Bullets hit the central bank and the main market killing at least three people. Several government buildings have been targeted including the Defence Ministry” the missionary said.
“The situation is deteriorating so rapidly that the army has called on civilians to arm and help the military beat back rebels. There could be a blood bath. So far at least 30 people have been killed but the number of victims is bound to increase. Caritas assistance centres are overflowing with injured and displaced persons in search of help and shelter” local Fides Service sources affirm.
There are reports of sacking and fighting of varying intensity in 16 of Burundi’s 17 provinces. The attacks are led by Rwasa-FNL rebels, the only faction of this guerrilla movement which refused to sign a cease-fire with the national unity government led by President Domitien Ndayizeye.
Since 1993 Burundi has been disrupted by civil war between the government army composed mostly of Tutsi and various Hutu guerrilla movements. In these years some 300,000 have been killed. In 2000 an agreement was reached in Arusha, Tanzania, to form a national unity government of transition made up of most of the political parties in Burundi. The agreement stipulated alternating Tutsi and Hutu presidency every 18 months with vice presidents of the opposite tribe. This complicated system was adopted in an attempt to overcome age old rivalry between a domineering Tutsi minority and a subjected Hutu majority.
Hutu President Ndayizeye took office on May 1 this year. The task of the transitional government is to prepare for free elections to be held in 2004. To support the Burundian peace process the African Union deployed 3,500 peace-keeping troops but the AU mission is unable to stop the fighting. LM (Fides Service 11/7/2003 EM lines 36 Words: 419)
