A Bulletin of Southern African Affairs
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Copyright reserved in all countries
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Vol.16/23 16 November 01
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www.southscan.net
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Region (SouthScan v16/23 16 Nov 01) : Intensification of fighting makes SA role more controversial

Fighting in Burundi by Hutu rebel forces is reported to have intensified since the inception of the transitional government on November 1. This has made the mission of the SA National Defence Force's to protect returning Hutu politicians in Burundi yet more controversial (SouthScan v16/21;22).

Rebels have stepped up their attacks in the east of the country near Tanzania, in the southern province of Bururi, and in Bujumbura Rurale province, according to Amnesty International. "Two weeks into the new transitional government and the key players in the Burundi conflict are showing little sign of strengthening their commitment to the protection of human rights", the human rights organisation said.

The focus continues to be on the SANDF's role in protecting returning politicians, and the potential is there for Tutsi anger to boil over. One such politician is Jean Minani, the chairman of assassinated state president, Melchior Ndadaye's Front for Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu). He is being prosecuted in Belgium for his alleged participation in the killings of some 50,000 Tutsis, in October 1993. The claim was lodged on November 14 by a group of Burundian citizens, including the head of the Amasekanya 'self-defence power' militias, Diomede Rutamucero.

Minani is accused of using a Radio Rwanda broadcast soon after the assassination of Ndadaye in 1993 to urge Burundi's Hutus to resist, by any means, the Burundian 'putschist' army. It is claimed that the broadcast contained a coded message ordering Frodebu militias to massacre Tutsi civilians in the days following. The case was launched in Belgium, where a 1993 law allows local courts a 'universal competence' to rule on cases of genocide and crimes against humanity, wherever, and by whoever, they are committed. Two other Burundian leaders are also being prosecuted in Belgium; one is the current parliamentary speaker, Leonce Ngendakumana, also from Frodebu, and the other is the former state president, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, who was overthrown in July 1996 by the military who replaced him with Major Pierre Buyoya. Buyoya had objected to Ntibantunganya's call for a joint Ugandan-Tanzanian expeditionary force in the country.

According to Rutamucero, Ngendakumana too, is accused of inciting the population in his Isale constituency in Bujumbura to kill Tutsis. The complainants' lawyer, Melence Nkubanyi, claims that several witnesses can confirm this. He claims that directly before the killings Ngendakumana met with the then governor of Bujumbura province, who was himself later sentenced to 20 years in jail for his involvement in the killings. Ntibantunganya is accused of publicly justifying the killings as "the result of the legitimate people's 'little wrath'"(agashavu in the Kirundi language).

In another development SouthScan learns of an incident concerning SA troops at the first cabinet meeting of the new transitional government, which was sworn in on November 1. Eyewitnesses reported a verbal clash when the civil service minister, Festus Ntanyungu from the Hutu-led National Council for the Defence of Democracy, insisted that the South Africans escort him into the presidential palace where the meeting was to take place. Inside the president's security staff objected and he was finally convinced by his Hutu cabinet colleagues to give the escort up. The circumstances of the SA mission are likely to grow more difficult if the security situation continues to deteriorate. About 300 students were abducted from schools at Kirambi, in the eastern province of Ruyigi, and at Musema in Kayanza province last week, by Hutu rebels belonging to the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), to serve as soldiers in their war against the Burundian army. The US organisation Human Rights Watch has called on Nelson Mandela, as mediator, to plead for the release of the students. The youngest child captured is aged 12. Unicef, the UN Children's Fund, said on Friday that children abducted in Ruyigi were "in great danger" and should be released immediately. Yet inside South Africa, after covering news of the initial introduction of the SA troops, the media has shifted its focus. The difficulties and dangers facing its troops in their first major incursion in a peace role north of their borders may therefore come as a surprise for many South Africans.