- Title: BURUNDI: STREETS DESERTED FOLLOWING ATTACKS BY TUTSI GOVERNMENT TROOPS
- Date: 4th June 1995
- Summary: BUJUMBURA, KAMANGE AND UNIDENTIFIED CAMP, BURUNDI (JUNE 4 AND 5, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) KAMEGE, BURUNDI (JUNE 5, 1995) 1. GV/VARIOUS OF DESERTED STREETS (3 SHOTS) 0.15 2. SLV DOG CROSSING EMPTY STREET 0.24 BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI (JUNE 4 AND 5, 1995) 3. GV DESERTED STREET/SV ORGANISATION OF AFRICAN UNITY PEACE MISSION D
- Embargoed: 19th June 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BUJUMBURA, KAMEGE AND UNIDENTIFIED CAMP, BURUNDI
- City:
- Country: Burundi
- Reuters ID: LVA2N61MVKC92HG9IIO8EI4MAWIX
- Story Text: Hundreds of Burundian mainly-Tutsi government troops thrust into a suburban Hutu rebel stronghold in the capital Bujumbura on Wednesday (June 7) and gunfire and explosions rocked the city, witnesses said.
Aid workers said some 25 people had been wounded in Kamenge, the last major stronghold of the mainly Hutu militia, which Prime Minister Antoine Nduwayo on Monday ordered seized by the government army who had besieged it for the last week.
Kamenge suburb normally has an estimated population of 40,000 to 50,000 Hutus. But at least 20,000 have fled since clashes erupted last Wednesday and are now huddled in the hills overlooking Bujumbura.
But on Monday Kamange looked like a ghost-town with deserted streets and abandoned cars and houses.
An Organisation of African Unity (OAU) peace mission led by its Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim left the capital at the weekend after failing to enter Kamenge to broker a ceasefire. The army said it could not guarantee safety in the area.
The mission had been in Burundi since last Tuesday, trying to press the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis to accept peace.
The Rwandan Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu also visited Burundi at the weekend. His mission was two-fold.
He held discussions with his Burundi counterpart and addressed government officials on the Rwandan position regarding the repatriation of thousands of Rwandan refugees in camps in northern Burundi.
Also on his agenda was the issue of regional security. Burundi says Hutu guerrillas are based in Zaire and collude with Rwanda's defeated army who fled into Zaire last year after participating in the genocide of up to one million Tutsis and allied Hutus.
Twagiramungu visited refugee camps before his departure.
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