DATE=2/5/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BURUNDI/CAMPS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258853
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=BUJUMBURA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Authorities in the central African nation of
Burundi have announced they will begin closing some of
the more than 50 so-called "regroupment camps" in
hills around the capital. As Todd Pitman reports from
Bujumbura, the government set up the camps to separate
civilians from rebels.
TEXT: Burundi government spokesman Luc Rukingama says
11 camps, housing around 56-thousand civilians, will
be closed in an operation set to begin on Monday.
Maramvya camp, housing around three-thousand people on
a plain just north of the capital, is the first camp
scheduled to be dismantled.
Officials say other camps will be closed later in a
second phase if security conditions are good enough.
Since late last year, the government has forcibly
regrouped more than 350-thousand people, mainly Hutu
civilians, into camps it calls "protection sites" in
Bujumbura-Rurale, the province surrounding the
capital.
The move is part of an effort to separate civilians
from combatants and deny food and support to Hutu
rebels who have waged an insurgency against the
government and the country's Tutsi-dominated army for
the past six years.
Burundi began regrouping people in temporary camps
several years ago and has dismantled several large
ones in the past. Security has improved in some areas
as a result, particularly in the north of the country.
But the policy of regrouping people by force has drawn
harsh criticism from the international community,
including former South African president Nelson
Mandela, the mediator on the Burundi crisis.
Aid agencies say conditions at some sites are
horrible, and in some camps people are only allowed to
return to their fields once or twice a week for a few
hours.
United Nations officials have called on Burundi to
close the camps, saying they are a clear breach of
international humanitarian law.
Peace talks aimed at ending the war are due to resume
on February 21st in the northern Tanzanian town,
Arusha. (Signed)
NEB/TP/ALW/JP
05-Feb-2000 09:49 AM EDT (05-Feb-2000 1449 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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