Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 29, 1993 TAG: 9310290130
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI LENGTH: Medium
Thousands are dead and more are dying in the African nation's latest binge of bloodshed, set off by the killing of Burundi's president in an Oct. 21 military coup.
The murderous backlash chased the army back into the barracks, but surviving government officials remain in hiding, and are only slowly re-establishing authority over some institutions in the capital.
In the countryside, old animosities the coup rekindled between the majority Hutu people and the minority - though dominant - Tutsis were being played out in an orgy of killings and destruction.
Bishop Barnard Bududira, head of the Roman Catholic Church, said the death toll could go higher than in 1988, when an estimated 20,000 died in similar clashes.
In 30 years, clashes between Hutus and Tutsis have taken up to 200,000 lives in this nation between Zaire and Tanzania.
The collapse of the coup was first announced by Radio Burundi, which had been under control of the military, then by James Jonah, the U.N. undersecretary for African affairs.
Still, nobody appeared to be firmly in charge of the nation.
"The government has effectively reassumed power," Jonah told reporters after meeting with coup leaders - only to be contradicted by Prime Minister Sylvie Kinigi and several Western diplomats.
Kinigi and seven former Cabinet ministers refused to leave their sanctuary in the French Embassy. They said they could still be targeted by Tutsi military men who killed President Melchior Ndadaye in the early hours of the coup. Ndadaye was a Hutu, the first ever to lead this Central African nation. The army is dominated by Tutsis.
"How can we be sure of our security?" Kinigi asked reporters. "Put yourself in our position. We were chased like animals."
"We are trying to re-establish our control little by little," Kinigi said. "We now control the territorial [police] administration and communications."
She claimed no control over the 8,000-man army nor of events in the countryside.
by CNB