July 2001 Africa News Headlines

Thursday, July 26, 2001 - Web posted at 09:45:34 GMT

Burundi questions officers behind failed coup attempt

COLOR="#333333">BUJUMBURA - Burundi's shaken government said it was interrogating officers behind a failed coup attempt to prevent further assaults amid heightened tensions over efforts to end the civil war.

Dissident soldiers from the minority ethnic Tutsi community surrendered on Monday after trying to topple the government in an apparent bid to derail fresh peace efforts they fear will hand power to majority Hutus.

"Yesterday evening they had a long discussion between themselves and the majority decided to surrender," said government spokesman Luc Rukingama.

"The investigations have just started," he said.

He declined to comment on what would happen to the plotters.

Five high-ranking officers taken hostage by the rebels, including Brigadier-General Libere Hicuburundi, chief of the army staff in President Pierre Buyoya's office, were freed when the dissidents surrendered, Rukingama said.

Residents of the capital Bujumbura said Tutsi hardliners opposed to Buyoya, a fellow Tutsi seen as a relative moderate, were likely to stage more attempts to topple the government until he stepped down.

Life has returned to what passes for normal in Bujumbura, a city virtually under siege with Hutu rebels camped in hills flanking the city and the Tutsi-led government arming civilians in case rumours of an impending rebel assault come true.

But the tiny African country's second failed coup attempt in four months has deepened the gloom of a population perpetually on edge after eight years of brutal ethnic conflict. - Nampa-Reuters

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