Civilians Scramble for Last Flights Out

Anxious foreigners and Burundians scrambled for tickets on the last scheduled commercial flights out of the sanctions-hit Central African nation. At the Sabena airline office in the capital, Burundian businessmen, Rwandans, Belgians and Western aid workers formed long lines for tickets for two flights to Brussels today. Burundi has been cut off from all its neighbors since Friday, when Zaire became the last to say it had imposed sanctions to force a return to civilian rule after a July 25 army coup. A U.S. Embassy official said the ambassador was trying to arrange for a military plane to fly in from Kenya to pick up those foreigners unable to get out.