BURUNDI/FILE: CHILD SOLIDERS HIGH AND ADDICTED TO DRUGS GO ON KILLING SPREES IN SPITE OF SIGNED PEACE DEAL

Record ID: 544710

  • Title: BURUNDI/FILE: CHILD SOLIDERS HIGH AND ADDICTED TO DRUGS GO ON KILLING SPREES IN SPITE OF SIGNED PEACE DEAL
  • Date: 31st July 2003
  • Summary: BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AU PEACE KEEPERS WALKING AU SOLDIERS STANDING AT ENTRANCE OF BUILDING AU SOLDIERS SEATED TALKING AU PEACE KEEPERS ENTERING INTO A BUILDING PEACE KEEPING FORCES STANDING AT ATTENTION
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI
  • Country: Burundi
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA3824GZBAB89E7YOZ0GQAIDRP1
  • Story Text: High and addicted to drugs, Burundi's child soldiers go on a killing rampage in spite of a signed peace deal and a rebel disarmament process supervised by Africa Union's Peace Keeping Forces.
    It's early July, and these Burundians don't want to miss out on the show: The African Union in action on their doorstep, restoring peace.
    These Hutu rebels have left their ranks to be disarmed here, and prepared for their integration into the regular army.
    Their commanders signed a peace treaty with the government in October 2002 -- an accord backed by the African Union, who committed a peacekeeping force to disarm the rebels.
    "The African Union showed a political determination to support the Burundi peace process that the United Nations didn't show. The African mission took political risks to actually agree to support the implementation of the cease fire agreement to intervene in a very fragile situation in Burundi," says Francois Grignon, a Political Analyst.
    It was a delicate truce. Just a few days after the disarmament started, the capital Bujumbura suffered its worst attack since the civil war ten years ago.
    The National Liberation Forces or FNL, a rebel group that hadn't signed the treaty, took control of the outskirts, coming to within less than five kilometres of the city centre.
    Two hundred people died in the one-week of fighting.
    To warn of their attack, the rebels lay out ammunition and drums in the areas they plan to take. It's a code understood by everyone -- time to leave, and fast.
    "What really upsets me is how much the population has suffered. We're finished. Every day, every minute, we expect another grenade, or gunshots. Our leaders say they are working on peace. But what kind of peace exactly are they talking about?" laments Claver Ntamatungiro, a Bujum umbura resident.
    On the 5th day of the rebel offensive, the army admitted to having killed twenty-eight rebels, including children -- some as young as ten.
    "These people are real fighters. They take drugs, for sure," Bujumbura resident Adelain Butoyi reveals. "They are even small children. We captured a kid, and he told us he was only carrying bullets. We saw that he was also carrying a gun. When we asked him how many they were, he said they were a big group. He was about ten-years-old."
    "What I know, is that these people are carrying out suicide missions. They'll attack even if they don't have the manpower, even if they know they won't succeed.
    Unfortunately, as you may have seen, they use child soldiers to do it, kids who are younger than twelve.
    They're on a suicide mission," General Samuel Gahiro explains.
    Eighteen-year-old Mathias, a member of the FNL, has just been taken prisoner by the army. The others in his unit were killed.
    He says that the promise of money and the mysticism surrounding the FNL pushed him to join up.
    "The FNL asked us to join their group. They promised us 475 dollars each. And the man who trained us came from Gitega. They told us 'Go ahead, as you are fighters of Jesus Christ',"
    he recounts.
    On the same day, the FNL released thirty-nine people who were taken hostage over several days. The residents of Musaga, a Tutsi neighbourhood, anxiously await their loved ones.
    "The rebels started talking about God. They were kind to us. They even told us to take a shower if we want. I didn't expect that, we thought that they would kill us out on the field. But it didn't happen," Mamy, another Bujumbura resident discloses.
    By freeing their Tutsi prisoners, the rebels are putting a message across -- theirs isn't an ethnic conflict, it's political.
    The new transitional president, Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, is determined to fight those who still reject the peace accord.
    As a result, two Hutu rebel groups are still at war.
    The FNL are one of them, and the only negotiating partners that they will accept are Tutsi military dignitaries -- not the Hutus in power.
    "Their intention is to occupy the capital," says Army Chief of Staff Germain Niyoyankana. "Apparently they want to negotiate with the army, and not the government, or so they say."
    The fighting over the last few days has posed a paralysing challenge to the African Union -- how can they enforce a cease-fire that doesn't exist? Intervening in the battle is out of the question, as it would involve taking sides.
    Either way, their military power is limited. The promised Ethiopian and Mozambican troops have not even arrived yet.
    Political Analyst, Franois Grignon: "The main problem is that there's no peace to keep. What are they to come and do in Bujumbura? They are going to arrive in Bujumbura but they won't be able to be deployed in the country where fighting is going on. And they are going to be targeted by the belligerents, by the rebellion in particular, so as long as there is no willingness to proceed with the peace process, there's no willingness to implement the cease-fire agreement, there's no need for the African mission to deploy."
    In Bujumbura, 40,000 people, both Hutu and Tutsi, have taken refuge in the gardens of a museum in the heart of the city.
    They still have hope in their hearts, now that the conflict has become political rather than ideological.
    But, while political differences remain unresolved, the bloody clashes between rebels and the government seem likely to continue.
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