Burundi Leader Tells of Army Reprisals

Burundi’s leader said Thursday that his soldiers killed civilians in reprisals for the massacres of rival tribesmen, and he said the death toll from ethnic violence in the central African nation could be more than 5,000.

The leader, Maj. Pierre Buyoya, was quoted on state-run Radio Burundi, monitored in neighboring Rwanda. More than 41,000 Burundians have fled to Rwanda to escape fighting between the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi, who control Burundi’s government and military.

Buyoya said his government was trying to restore order and promised that those found guilty of involvement in the slaughter would be punished, Radio Burundi reported.

The government said that 5,000 people were killed, but Buyoya said some bodies may not have been counted. The government said its initial figure came from gravediggers sent to bury the dead.

The latest round in a quarter century of ethnic violence between the two tribes began Aug. 14 when Hutu attacked Tutsi in two communities in northern Burundi, hacking hundreds to death with machetes and burning people alive in huts, refugees and Burundi officials said. The cause of the attack was not immediately clear.

Buyoya blamed the initial trouble on exiled Hutu tribesmen he said had crossed from Tanzania.

He said soldiers in the Tutsi-dominated army, who were sent into the area to act as peacemakers in the tribal conflict, continued the slaughter after discovering the bodies of Tutsi tribesmen.

Many of the mostly Hutu refugees fleeing to Rwanda arrived with bayonet, knife and bullet wounds, as well as stories of soldiers killing other Hutu.

“The soldiers were rounding up Hutus and shooting them,” one refugee said. “They are collecting them into groups, taking them inside houses, closing the doors and windows and then shooting.”

Massacre Described

Reverin Ndururutse, 32, said his 5-year-old nephew and his 3-year-old son were the only survivors of a family of 15 herded into a house by soldiers who opened fire. He said the adults threw themselves on top of the two children.

Buyoya, who seized power in a bloodless coup Sept. 3, 1987, appealed to those who lost their relatives “to refrain from acts of violence and revenge. Such behavior may reverse our aim of forging ahead in developing Burundi.”

Buyoya said his government will try as soon as possible to lift a nighttime curfew. The government also has restricted travel between towns and banned meetings of more than five people.

In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, government officials pleaded for international assistance to cope with the influx of refugees who are reportedly arriving at an average of 2,000 per day.

The Burundi government has also asked for international aid and has urged the refugees in Rwanda to return home and promised to help them resettle.

The two countries are former Belgian colonies each about the size of Maryland. About 6.1 million people are crammed into Rwanda, Africa’s most densely populated nation, while 5 million live in Burundi, Africa’s second most densely populated country.

The short, stocky Hutu comprise about 84% of the population in both nations and the tall, lanky Tutsi 15%. But the Hutu have ruled in Rwanda since 1959, when they overthrew the former Tutsi-dominated government and killed an estimated 100,000 people.

In Burundi, the Tutsi have held onto power. The most serious threat to Tutsi rule was in 1972, when the Hutu attempted a coup, killing hundreds of Tutsi before the rebellion was crushed.

The government retaliated by slaughtering between 100,000 and 300,000 Hutu, including most of the tribe’s leaders, according to human rights groups.

“The Tutsi live in mortal fear knowing they are in the minority,” said an American missionary who lived and worked in Burundi from 1960 to 1970 and spoke on condition of anonymity. “They fear that some Hutu leader is going to rally the people around him and they know that will be the Tutsis’ death knell.”