DATE=11/23/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BURUNDI ATTACK (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256478
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=KIGALI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: At least 20 people have been killed in Burundi
(Tuesday) in fighting between the army and rebels and
in a grenade attack in the African nation's capital,
Bujumbura. Meanwhile, as Todd Pitman reports from
Kigali, regional leaders are preparing to select a new
mediator to help restart stalled Burundi peace talks.
TEXT: Residents of Burundi's capital, Bujumbura,
awoke Tuesday to the sound of gunfire echoing through
hills overlooking the city.
Army spokesman Login Minani says rebels attacked a
military position at Muyira, 15 kilometers east of the
capital, just after dawn, with rockets and grenades.
One government soldier was reportedly killed and five
were wounded. Colonel Minani says 15 rebels were shot
dead, but that death toll is likely to rise as
government troops continue operations to pursue rebel
fighters into the hills.
Fighting outside the capital was punctuated by a
grenade explosion at midday in the vast central market
in downtown Bujumbura.
Louis-Marie Nindorera, the executive-director of the
Burundian rights group Ligue Iteka, says at least four
civilians were killed in the blast and two were
wounded. Local authorities found another unexploded
grenade in the market later in the day.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blast, but
Mr. Nindorera says it is the first such incident in
the center of Burundi's capital since 1996.
Aid workers say at least 200-thousand people, mostly
civilians, have been killed in Burundi's civil war
since 1993.
Peace talks in neighboring Tanzania have yielded
little results, and fighting between the army and
rebels has continued unabated.
The peace process itself was interrupted in October by
the death of the mediator, former Tanzanian President
Julius Nyerere. But regional leaders are expected to
meet in Tanzania at the end of November to select a
replacement. (Signed)
NEB/TP/JWH/LTD/JO
23-Nov-1999 11:45 AM EDT (23-Nov-1999 1645 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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