AFRICA/BURUNDI - Tension in northern Burundi: at least 1000 Tutsi flee to Rwanda to escape violence

Wednesday, 6 October 2004

Bujumbura (Fides Service) - Although more than one thousand Burundi Tutsi have taken refuge in Rwanda to escape violence, neither the national press nor by the Burundian government have made any reference to the events, local sources in Bujumbura capital of Burundi told Fides. According to international press sources groups of armed Hutu have been launching night time attacks on homes causing more than one thousand Burundian Tutsi, mostly women and children, to seek safety in Rwanda. The UN World Food Programme has said it is sending food aid to refugee camps in Rwanda.
“These groups which attack civilians are mostly guerrillas of the National Liberation Forces (FLN)” local sources told Fides. The FNL, the second largest Hutu guerrilla group in Burundi, take ethnic origin to the extreme. Whereas FDD (Forces for the Defence of Democracy) the main guerrilla groups is less ideological and this has allowed it to sign a peace agreement with the government.
“Although there is still tension at the military level, at the political level several parties are making contact to define the transition process since the constitutional referendum has been postponed sine die” the sources told Fides. On 30 September the independent electoral commission announced that a referendum on the draft Constitution approved by Parliament on 17 September had been postponed (see Fides 1 October 2004). The vote was boycotted by 82 out of 271 members of Parliament. In effect Tutsi parties had asked their representatives not to take part in the vote. “Now political tension seems to have subsided and everyone want to look to the future” local sources told Fides. “The transition period will end officially on November 1 and the last act of the interim government will be to appoint the new president and vice president”. The present Parliament and Presidency, involving power sharing Tutsi and Hutu and 18 months Tutsi president and Hutu vice, and then vice versa for the next 18 months, was a result of the peace agreement signed in Arusha in 2000. The complex programme aimed at settling years of tribal rivalry and strife. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 6/10/2004 righe 34 parole 428)


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