S. African Soldier Serving With Protection Force Killed in Burundi

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 05, 2002

S. African Soldier Serving With Protection Force Killed in Burundi

A South African soldier serving with a protection force in Burundi has been found murdered in the capital Bujumbura, according to reports reaching here from Bujumbura on Friday.

A South African soldier serving with a protection force in Burundi has been found murdered in the capital Bujumbura, according to reports reaching here from Bujumbura on Friday.

The reports said that the body was found with a rope around his neck in an abandoned house in Kinama, a northern district of the capital, where 700 South Africans troops are guarding members of a transitional government installed in November to help end an eight-year-old ethnic war.

The murder follows the killing in November of the World Health Organization's representative in Burundi, whose body was pulled out of Lake Tanganyika near Bujumbura. Police arrested four security guards in connection with the murder.

A total of 700 South African troops have been in Burundi since late October as part of a protection force for Burundian politicians returning from exile, a key part of the fragile peace process in Burundi.

Fighting in Burundi has intensified since the government was sworn in on November 1, 2001. The two main Hutu rebel groups have refused to agree to a ceasefire, saying they were not involved in negotiations.

Burundi's civil war, which erupted in 1993, has left some 250,000 people dead.