U.N. Leader Wants New Burundi Force

Warning that ethnic tensions in Burundi could explode into “violence on a massive scale,” the U.N. chief is urging the Security Council to prepare a force that could intervene in the Central African country.

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is unlikely to find support in the council, especially since both the Security Council and Burundi’s government rejected a similar proposal in 1994 after more than 500,000 people were massacred in neighboring Rwanda.

Both Burundi and Rwanda are composed of ethnic Hutus and Tutsis, who have been rivals for power.

In a letter to the Security Council released Tuesday, Boutros-Ghali said ethnic violence has already forced aid groups to curtail or suspend their programs.

“I fear there is a real danger of the situation in Burundi degenerating to the point where it might explode into ethnic violence on a massive scale,” he wrote.

The letter was dated Dec. 29. Since then, the tension appears to have eased, and the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that there were no reports of violence over the weekend.

At one time, the United Nations had 5,600 troops in Rwanda. They have been reduced to about 2,100 and are expected to be withdrawn in about three months. U.N. officials are apparently worried that setting up a mission from scratch--should violence increase in Burundi--would take months.

Sporadic violence between the Hutus and Tutsis has plagued Burundi since army officers killed the country’s first Hutu president in a failed coup in 1993.