Heavy Fighting Kills 24 Hutu Rebels in Burundi

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 26, 2002

Heavy Fighting Kills 24 Hutu Rebels in Burundi

Around 24 Hutu rebels were killed and three government soldiers were injured in a heavy fighting near Burundi's capital of Bujumbura on Sunday, according to reports reaching Dar es Salaam.

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Around 24 Hutu rebels were killed and three government soldiers were injured in a heavy fighting near Burundi's capital of Bujumbura on Sunday, according to reports reaching Dar es Salaam.

The rebels from the Forces for National Liberation (FNL) began attacks at 5 a.m. (03000 GMT) and the fighting continued into afternoon, forcing civilians living in Gihosa, 4 km north of Bujumbura, to flee their homes.

Two South African soldiers were wounded in the fighting and flown home for emergency treatment, a spokesman with the South African forces sent to protect Hutu politicians said.

The FNL, whose negotiators are expected to hold ceasefire talkswith the representatives of the Burundian transitional government on Monday here, is a major rebel group active in Burundi.

Despite ceasefire talks being held in neighboring Tanzania, battles between the Tutsi-dominated army and Hutu rebels have intensified in recent weeks, giving rise to suspicions whether theDar es Salaam negotiations would result in any substantial progress.

Burundi's civil war broke out in October 1993 when the country's first democratically elected President Melchoir Ndadaye, a Hutu,was assassinated in a military coup. A total of 250,000 people have been killed in the following nine years of armed conflicts.

Thanks to the mediation by former South African president Nelson Mandela, the Burundian government led by Pierre Buyoya and 19 political parties signed a peace plan in northern Tanzanian city of Arusha in August 2000. Last November, the Burundian transitional government was set up.

However, the birth of the transitional government did not bring about a ceasefire as many people had expected.

The FNL and the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), another major Hutu rebel group, refused to recognize the authorityof the transitional government and continued their fighting against the army.

The minority Tutsi have effectively controlled the country of 6million people for all but a few months since it gained independence from Belgium in 1962.

Both the FDD and FNL, who alleged to fight for the rights of the majority Hutus, said it is the Burundian army that holds the reins of the country, demanding direct talks with the army insteadof the power-sharing transitional government.

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