AFRICA/BURUNDI - NO END TO VIOLENCE IN BURUNDI. IS PEACE PROCESS REAL OR PRETEND?

Wednesday, 15 October 2003

Bujumbura (Fides Service) – “By now we are hardly surprised to hear every morning reports of violence during the previous night” a missionary in Bujumbura tells Fides Service. Dozens have been killed in night time raids on homes in Bujumbura the capital of Burundi. “By day the situation is calm but by night city districts are overrun by bandits and armed groups who break into homes, to loot and kill” says Fides source. “Are they guerrillas, bandits, military? Whoever they are, the civilians are always the ones who suffer.”
There is no end to violence in this country in the heart of Africa despite peace agreements signed on 8 October un Pretoria South Africa by Burundian president Domitien Ndayizeye and Pierre Nkurunziza leader of the FDD Forces for Defence of democracy, the main rebel group in Burundi. “People are losing hope, they have seen so many peace treaties signed but no end to the fighting” the missionary says. “Perhaps it is time for Europe, which give economic support to Burundian parties involved in the peace process, to revise its position. Could it be that those who take money from the European Union are interested in keeping negotiations going so as to keep up the international funding? Who has power in Burundi, the President, or the military extremists?” LM (Fides Service 15/10/2003 EM lines 23 Words: 267)


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