BURUNDI: Police arrest the ruling party's former chairman in alleged "coup" fallout

Record ID: 454813

  • Title: BURUNDI: Police arrest the ruling party's former chairman in alleged "coup" fallout
  • Date: 3rd May 2007
  • Summary: (AD1) BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI (APRIL 27, 2007) (REUTERS) POLICE VAN ENTERING THE COURT YARD/ RADJABU'S SUPPORTERS HIDING HIM BEHIND UMBRELLAS RADJABU'S SUPPORTERS FIGHTING WITH POLICE (SOUNDBITE) (Kirundi) BENJAMIN BIGIRIMANA, BUJUMBURA RESIDENT, SAYING: "When we listen to the radio, it's exactly his voice, nothing has changed. Even the one who supports him can hear that it is his voice that was recorded, there's no montage. It is his voice, nobody told him to say that. We want justice to be dispended." (SOUNDBITE) (Kirundi) VENANT NZITONDA BUJUMBURA RESIDENT, SAYING : "I think that if what they say is not true, he should be released, and if he is guilty, he should stay in prison." POLICE WAITING HUSSEIN RADJABU TO COME OUT OF THE STATE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE HUSSEIN RADJABU COMING OUT OF THE STATE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE SURROUNDED WITH POLICE OFFICERS/ GETTING INTO POLICE VEHICLE. POLICE CAR TAKING HUSSEIN RADJABU TO BUJUMBURA'S CENTRAL PRISON
  • Embargoed: 18th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Burundi
  • Country: Burundi
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA43PBA30CZ325RI751RI1A6EE7
  • Story Text: Police in Burundi arrested a hardline former ruling party chairman on Friday (April 27) on allegations he has been destabilising the tiny African nation's government.
    Burundi's parliament also stripped Hussein Radjabu of his immunity after he was twice questioned by state prosecutors, and policemen later searched his home in the capital Bujumbura.
    Radjabu however was quick to say that the movement was bigger than he was.
    "My imprisonment or my disappearance will not resolve the problem. The machinery is running, the members are there, we are not manipulating anyone, everybody stood up," Radjabu told reporters before the officers took him away.
    The influential boss of the ruling CNDD-FDD party was ousted from his position as chairman last month, and several of his allies have since been dismissed from the government.
    The CNDD-FDD came under scrutiny after it said last year it had uncovered a plot to topple President Pierre Nkurunziza. Critics accused the party of fabricating the plot as a pretext to quash dissent, a charge the government denied, but Radjabu was widely regarded as the man behind the accusations.
    "When we listen to the radio, it's exactly his voice, nothing has changed. Even the one who supports him can hear that it is his voice that was recorded, there's no montage. It is his voice, nobody told him to say that. We want justice to be dispended," said Benjamin Bigirimana, in Bujumbura.
    "I think that if what they say is not true, he should be released, and if he is guilty, he should stay in prison," said Venant Nzitonda another Bujumbura resident.
    Emerging from more than a decade of ethnic civil war that killed some 300,000 people, Burundi was viewed as an African success story.
    Mounting allegations of corruption and human rights abuses have clouded that initial euphoria and grew to a head in 2006 when Radjabu was widely blamed for creating a regime of fear that saw scores of journalists and human rights workers leave Burundi in fear of their lives.
    The arrest of Radjabu may signal a turnaround by the current government, possibly signalling it is keen to be seen as promoting democracy and transparency.
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