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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

BURUNDI: Rebels kidnap four MPs

BUJUMBURA, 30 June 2003 (IRIN) - Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) rebels kidnapped on Saturday four Members of Parliament and seven others, as a warning to the Burundian government to end what is says is a propaganda campaign against the group.

"It is true our fighters arrested four senior members of FRODEBU at Gisuru. They were in an area controlled by FDD, they are safe," Hussein Radjabu, the CNDD-FDD secretary-general, said.

He added that FRODEBU, the Front pour la democratie au Burundi, had tried to discredit the group's image before the international community by "saying that our movement is against peace".

FRODEBU leaders told IRIN on Sunday that the 11 people were kidnapped in Ruyigi Province, eastern Burundi.

"We learnt that four members of our party were abducted by the rebels led by Pierre Nkururnziza at Gisuru commune in Ruyigi,” Jean de Dieu Mutabazi, the FRODEBU spokesman, said.

Mutabazi said Pierre Barusasiyeko, the vice secretary-general of the Parliament; Leonidas Ntibayazi, the head of the human rights commission at the Parliament; Véronique Nizigiyimana and Fabien Barutwanayo were among the abducted. They were, Mutabazi said, in Ruyigi to prepare for the 10th anniversary of the party's 1993 election victory, scheduled for Monday (30 June).

"We demand their immediate and unconditional release," Mutabazi said. "The mediation and the regional initiative for peace in Burundi have already been informed of this kidnapping."

Rebels have in the recent past kidnapped or killed several administration authorities who were members of FRODEBU.

"The FDD must know that electoral legitimacy will always triumph over military legitimacy, so it's time for them to lay down their guns and accept democratic principles," Mutabazi said.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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