Military

DATE= 6/05/02

TYPE= CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-290550

TITLE= BURUNDI / REBELS (L-O)

BYLINE= KATY SALMON

DATELINE= NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT=

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INTRO: Parts of Burundi's capital city have come under attack by Hutu rebels. Katy Salmon reports fear of additional shelling has forced many residents to leave their homes.

TEXT: Army officials and residents say at least six people were injured in a mortar attack on Burundi's capital city, Bujumbura, early Wednesday morning. Several houses were destroyed.

Fighting started Tuesday afternoon, when rebels of the National Liberation Forces, or F-N-L, attacked military positions in the north part of the city. Thousands fled their homes.

Observers say it is the rebels' boldest and most sustained attack on the capital since war broke out in Burundi in 1993.

Fiacre Munezero, a reporter with a local Burundian radio station, Studio Ijambo, says people are scared but they have nowhere to run to.

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Mr. Munezero says today we are hearing shelling here and there. There are still people who are scared. Some have moved with their children and left the houses guarded by their domestic workers. Otherwise, people are mostly at home but most want to move. But it is difficult to say where to go when the shells fall all over Bujumbura. You don't know where is safe. There is fear all over the city.

Burundi's conflict pits rebels of the ethnic Hutu majority against the Tutsi-dominated army. Some 250-thousand people have been killed in the last eight years, mostly civilians.

A new power-sharing government was installed in Burundi last November. But the two main rebel groups refused to recognize the accord.

Mr. Munezero says the second main rebel group, the C-N-D-D - F-D-D, Wednesday, threatened to start attacking members of the Burundian government.

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Mr. Munezero says the news today is that the F-D-D - C-N-D-D rebels said that they will start attacking the houses of political figures. This is a new development in the war in Burundi. It was the houses of poor people which were being attacked but now the rebels say they will start attacking the real power holders, the politicians.

The rebels have been meeting with South African mediators to try and arrange cease-fire talks with the Burundian government. (Signed)

NEB/KS/RH