Chris McGreal in Kigali
Burundi’s beleaguered Hutu president, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, has sought refuge at the United States ambassador’s residence in the capital, Bujumbura, and appears ready to relinquish office amid fears that he could become the third successive leader of his country to be assassinated.
The overwhelmingly Tutsi army denied this week that there had been a coup. But its ally, the mainly Tutsi Uprona party — the second largest member in the coalition government and the real power in Burundi — threatened to bring the administration down. Were Uprona to do so, the power vacuum would be an invitation for the military to step in.
Ntibantunganya fled to the US embassy after angry Tutsis pelted him with stones and cow-dung before a mass funeral for more than 300 people thought to have been massacred by Hutu rebels. The army stood by passively during the attack on the president, leaving his bodyguards to protect him as he fled to his helicopter.
Hutu rebel attacks and the military’s reprisals have claimed about 150 000 lives in less than three years, almost all civilians. But tensions have risen as Tutsi extremists, including members of the army, have vigorously opposed a plan for a regional military force to intervene and protect civilians.
An army spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Longin Minani, denied a coup was in the making. “Our president and commander-in-chief is President Ntibantunganya. There’s nothing that has changed. If he has gone to the US embassy, we don’t know why he went there. It astonishes us,” he said.
ENDS