Burundi Army Kills 20 Hutus; New Exodus Sends 14,000 to Tanzania

Burundi government troops killed about 20 Rwandan Hutus and wounded scores in an attack on a refugee camp in northeast Burundi that sparked an exodus of thousands of refugees, witnesses said Saturday.

As many as 14,000 terrified refugees fled the shooting into Tanzania, already home to more than 700,000 Hutus who fled civil war in Rwanda in 1994. Tanzania appealed for international help to deal with the new influx of refugees.

The news of the latest violent action by the Tutsi-dominated army came as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, arrived in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, for talks with Burundian leaders on ethnic violence in their country.

Albright warned Burundi’s army against toppling the fragile government, saying Washington would oppose change by force.

“The violence in Burundi must stop, and the U.S. government will not support any government that might come to power by force in this country,” Albright said.

The refugees said Wednesday’s raid on the Mugano camp appeared to have been a carefully planned operation by the army, battling Hutu rebels in the countryside, to force them into a second phase of exile.

A refugee who fled Mugano with gunshot wounds said the soldiers opened fire indiscriminately, hitting women and children, and that many people were wounded in the attack.